Jade Cargill vs. Thunder Rosa

[4.0] "It's a semifinal match in a long tournament so it's respectful and righteous to the format that this went on much-longer than the majority wanted. If Jade is going to be AEW's 'Bianca' she needs to be in these long singles matches. This experience, against a well-travelled veteran like T Rosa, is invaluable. The striking Amazonian Jade, for better and worse, is rough, but it's not the bout's length nor her inexperience that bothered me, but rather, here, the heel was placed in a face's position of selling her appendage to display qualities traditionally brought-out in faces: grit, determination, toughness, etc. It's all for naught, really, as it wasn't Jade's perseverance that won her the match, it was Mercedes Martinez's interference. Fine, but it's a cop-out, even-if I felt the action had its moments of gawky charm. 2 1/3 - 2/5 rounded-down for audience exploitation"

[5.0] "Ich fand das ganz okay in der Summe. Man hatte mit der Bearbeitung v. Cargills linkem Bein eine simple Matchstory die sich komplett durchgezogen hat. Leider weiß Cargill nicht immer, wie sie das richtig sellen soll. Ein bisschen zu lang war das ganze und leider war Thunder Rosa nicht in der Lage, Cargill zu einem besseren Match zu ziehen. Uncleanes Finish durch eingriff von Martinez ist verständlich, um Rosa etwas zu schützen. Trotzdem hätte ich ein cleanes Finish lieber gehabt."

[3.0] "Schön, dass man es mit Jade Cargill ernst meint, da die Damen auf jeden Fall das gewisse Etwas hat. Im Ring definiert sie sich aber nur über ein paar gute (High) Impact-Moves, darüber hinaus wird hier doch recht fix deutlich, dass Rosa die bessere Wrestlerin. Immerhin drückt man das auch beim Finish aus. Nicht ganz ausreichend für mich."

[5.0] "Not terrible, not great. Unfortunately the quality of the match was sacrificed to protect Rosa in her loss. **1/2"

[4.0] "Not the best, kind of clunky and uneventful, but not as bad as I expected. Jade Cargill shows a lot of potential, Thunder Rosa didn't carry her that well here though. In fact, honestly, Jade Cargill looked better in this match. A lot of spots looked really off. The finish was heatless, but it's so nice to see Mercedes Martinez back in a national league promotion."

[3.0] "This wasn't the worst but it didn't seem to click very well. Jade continues to show some promise but progress is slow. Rosa did not look on her best game, not sure the reason. Finish was pretty weak."

[4.0] "I fell asleep during this match. Not even joking. Wasn't really entertaining, but the right person won."

[4.0] "Wahrscheinlich ist Jade einfach nicht mehr dazu in Lage, ein besseres Match auf die Matte zu bringen. Thunder zeigt ihr eine ordentliche Leistung, kann aber auch nicht viel anfangen. Der Eingriff von Mercedes war das interessante am ganzen Match."

[2.0] "Jade Cargill was mostly fine in this. Thunder Rosa was hella off on a lot of spots and looked winded. The finish was also just really lame and didn't get Rosa, Jade or Mercedes over."

[2.0] "Could've just done the Red Velvet match format that Jade had success with but for some reason they made all the wrong choices here."

[5.0] "I thought Rosa could have made a banger with Cargill but the later stills always green. Impactful time to time but all the thing in a nutshell was a big meh. They tried to do the best thing possible but that never rocked as the crowd was a bit silent. The final strech was surprising, though."

[1.0] "Wahrscheinlich eines der schlechtesten Spiele, die ich je gesehen habe, bei denen es keine größeren Fehler gab. Einfach schreckliche Arbeit im Ring und ein schreckliches Finish."

[5.0] "This was about as good as a Jade singles match can get. Rosa's selling was really good and Mercedes' debut after the match was really cool."

[2.0] "How do you hold off on this match for months and still have it be this bad' Thunder Rosa's size compared to Jade makes for an easy story and they decided to swim upstream with having Jade have to sell most of the match. Awful booking for Jade and probably did her more harm than good, although she probably should have never been in this spot in the first place. Thunder Rosa was very sloppy."

[4.0] "Jade is obvously still very green and that seemed to rub off on Rosa, who looked uncharacteristically awkward herself. I don't know if that's because she was working with a rookie and wanted to play it safe, if she was legitimately injured, or both. The weak-looking dive on Sterling and how she moved in slow motion made me think that maybe she really is injured but maybe she felt she had to telegraph everything for Jade's benefit. In any case, you come away feeling like you can see the wires a little too clearly. I think you can handwave some of Jade's lack of technique away by saying that she's a bit like Bob Sapp when he started in K1 and MMA in that she lacks technique right now but has enough physical advantages to give even veterans trouble. I can overlook some of the slopiness in that regard, but this still got a little too ugly. The result also puts together a very uninteresting final for the tournament."

[2.0] "This was tough to watch. I don't really know how to describe it but it didn't feel like Thunder Rosa was trying to make this match look good. There were too many moves that didn't look like they would have any effect, like not running full force in to the turnbuckle when Jade Cargill was there, but then falling back like it was a full force move. I really didn't like the screwjob ending too. I feel like both Jade and Thunder Rosa came out of this looking bad."

[2.0] "Überhaupt nicht gut. Jade ist in all ihren Bewegungen langsam und Rosa wird an verschiedenen Stellen auch von eilig zu genauso langsam. Dieses Spiel hätte nie passieren dürfen."

[2.0] "Really strange booking to have a rookie in this spot and go this long when it's just going to end in interference anyway. Jade didn't botch anything though, she just looked really green. Rosa didn't look much better."

[3.0] "Big vs. Small matches are the easiest thing to do but this was a struggle for both women and just really boring."

[5.0] "Cargil's inexperience was very noticeable and a huge letdown to the match. Rosa did most of the heavy lifting but even her work this time was also a bit lethargic . Cargill winning makes sense although I was really hoping for Rosa to win. Cargill, despite her rawness holds herself like a star and looks like a star. Her only weakness is inexperience and if she keeps wrestling week in and week out, she is bound to get better. **1/2"

[6.0] "Solid match and the best of Jade in AEW so far. It had a good formula of power vs speed with Rosa targeting the leg and working on it mostly. Mercedes Martinez is All Elite for good and it's another blue-chip signing for AEW to close 2021 with a great deep roster. 2022 is surely a wild year for AEW with boundless options for champs and rivalries. I was madly expecting Ruby vs Rosa after their short energetic final run in the Casino Battle Royale but it is what it is. 3 out of 5 stars!"

[2.0] "2.5 - It'd be easy to point to Jade's green-ness, but Thunder Rosa didn't hold up her end here. Too much visual communication, weird match layout, TR's offense on the leg was not crisp, twice going for weird half-pins in between. Jade's power moves were the only highlight. The interference angle was a bit stilted."

"5.5/10 is m rating for this match. This match was average, I expected a way more brutal match, I hope they will have a rematch in the near future."

[4.0] "Cargil has been rushed to quickly into this position and even Thunder Rosa couldn't save this match."

[6.0] "Jade Cargill was very disappointing, although the match was well booked and rosa did well, but cargill did not perform well and showed that she is not a champion."

[5.0] "This match was psychologically sound, but it was also primarily a pretty dull affair. The repeated attacks on Cargill's leg were both performed and sold well by the respective parties, but this match felt drawn out, with little to drum up interest over its runtime. Cargill's relatively limited moveset is partially a factor, but Rosa wasn't exactly at her best here either. It was a relatively safe bet that this match was going to end in interference, but the set-up for it was still clunky and blatant. Add in a couple of awkward fumbles and placement issues, and you have a match that isn't awful but definitely wasn't all that much fun to watch."

[7.0] "I enjoyed the logical story they told in this with Thunder targeting the leg of Jade who sold it well. Interference was fine and happy to see Mercedes Martinez turn up, it is a division crying out for high level heels and AEW are finally getting there with it."

[7.0] "Very solid match, likely the best singles match Cargill has had alongside the one with Red Velvet in this same tournament. There's animosity, there's brawling, there's Jade using her power advantage well, Rosa bumps her ass off, and Rosa actually gets to work Jade over. The leg work was simple but effective at placing doubt on Cargill's ability to close the match out, and Jade for her level of experience sold the leg pretty consistently even though it didn't prevent her from actually doing any moves that put pressure on the leg, it just made her limp afterwards. This was moving along at a very good pace until the finish; Cargill was way too dominant before this match for a masked run-in off a ref distraction to be how she wins this one, it feels a bit lame. Otherwise, I really dug this match. You can see the potential in Cargill as a star, and I think that they've paced out her push well, provided she's not the inaugural TBS Champion in a week's time. Not everything's in-place with her, but it will be, and she's money by every other metric. Credit to Rosa for apparently leading her through the parts of the match that could've been rough for somebody with little experience and making both Jade's offense and her own leg work look good. ***1/4+"

[4.0] "Jade looked about as good as you'd expect for someone with her experience, which is to say: not TV ready, but it is what it is. She's got the look. Her pump kick was nice thanks to Rosa's bump, though the pop up Samoan Drop looked about as slow as it could possible be. Not a bad outing for her but not much to inspire confidence either. Rosa actually looked more off in this match at various points."

[5.0] "Well, at least Thunder Rosa only lost due to interference, but Jade remains poor in the ring and doesn't seem to be learning much. Rosa did a good job of carrying her to a solid match, but there's no way she's ready for the championship yet. Hopefully this means that Rosa is free to get a shot at Britt Baker for the top title, as losing in this fashion shouldn't knock her back."

[6.0] "This was a decent match. The brawl at the start of the match sold how personal the match is, and Jade logically worked the taped up back of Rosa throughout the match. The figure four was fun and Jade sold it pretty well. The finish was a little lame but bringing in Martinez to feud with Rosa pushes her feud with Baker back a little longer. Decent. [**3/4]"