BRM Reviews AEW Deadly Draw Episode 1

[Big Red Machine]

We’ve got Shaul Guerrero as the ring announcer, introducing Madusa to give a speech. These are coming across to me like the usual pointless WWE cameos.


DASHA INTERVIEWS BRANDI RHODES & ALLIE- terrible
The last time I saw these two, Brandi was clearly unhappy about having to team with Allie, and for no intelligent reason (there was an intelligent reason to be distrustful of her, but instead of raising that objection, Brandi raised another, much cattier one). Now they’re apparently best buds and Brandi is giving a whole speech about they “spearheaded” women’s tag team wrestling in AEW, which really isn’t true, because AEW had been having women’s tag matches since day one, and Allie & Brandi have only been together a few months, at most. They were the first regular team, sure, but there isn’t really a reason for there to be regular teams when there are no tag titles, so it’s kind of like taking credit for filling a non-existent hole.
Anyway, Brandi draws the red chip, and starts waxing on about her red is her favorite color in a way that came across like the sort of thing an annoying babyface would in an attempt to be endearing. Meanwhile, Allie looks into the pin and picks out the red chip on purpose. Or at least that’s what I assume we’re supposed to think. Honestly, if she could see the red chip and be able to grab it accurate at that angle, then the top AEW put on that thing shouldn’t have been able to stop anyone else from doing the same, but I’ll be nice to AEW here and go with what they want me to think.
We now have footage of Allie going against the rules of the tournament in picking her chip ON CAMERA! Sure, “all picks are final” was one of the rules, but it’s a little silly that you can’t make someone repick when there is clear evidence that she is going against the obvious spirit of the rules? If she had dumped all of the chips out onto the floor and then bent down and picked up the red one, would you really let her get away with it? That’s essentially what she did here!

VEDA SCOTT IS ON COMMENTARY!

DEADLY DRAW TOURNAMENT QUARTERFINAL MATCH: Mel & Penelope Ford (w/Kip Sabian) vs. the Nightmare Sisters (w/Q.T. Marshall & Dustin Rhodes)- 5.75/10
This was a solid match until the ass-backwards psychology at the end where the heel gets a visual pinfall on the babyface, then one of the babyfaces rakes the heel’s eyes to set up the other babyface hitting her finisher. Veda pushed the idea that Brandi might not approve of Allie’s cheating, but if that’s the case then we need to see Brandi telling her off for it (and surely Brandi will find out about it because it happened on a worldwide internet show that Brandi’s company produces). And when you consider that the last time we saw Allie and Brandi on TV, they didn’t like each other but now seem to be best friends, I’m not getting my hopes up that they’ll follow upon this well, either.

WHICH TEAM WILL ANNA JAY BE ON?- She chose black, which is also chosen by Taynara Conti! Hooray for Taynara Conti!

DEADLY DRAW TOURNAMENT QUARTERFINAL MATCH: Anna Jay & Tay Conti vs. Arianne Andrew & Nyla Rose (w/Vickie Guerrero)- 6/10
Anna Jay acting like a generic heel as a member of the Dark Order was a little disappointing. I don’t know what I was hoping for, but it wasn’t generic arrogant heel stuff.
I’m sure people will think I’m overrating this one a bit, but I liked it a lot. Nyla Rose was the heel in peril, and somehow that managed to work. Arianne was also not as bad as I remember her being. The real highlight for me was any time Conti and Nyla were in there together. I want to see a good thirteen minutes of that on Dynamite. Anna Jay also looked good and worked well with Nyla, but I like Conti’s style better.

POST-MATCH SEGMENT- fine
Nyla blamed the team’s loss on Arianne, which was completely justified. For the crime of costing them the match, Nyla attacked Arianne. Vickie laughed. I’m sorry, but Vickie isn’t doing anything for me as a manager. I’d rather Nyla just talk for herself.
Nyla and Vickie left, and Conti eventually decided to check on Arianne. Those two hugged.

ALEX MARVEZ INTERVIEWS THE NIGHTMARE SISTERS- Brandi did pretty much all of the talking. I’m assuming the idea here was that she would come off as arrogant to the point of being completely unlikable. Brandi is taking sole credit for her team’s win, too. This segment seemed to designed to set up a story where Brandi is the heel and Allie is the babyface. If Brandi is going heel, it seems to defeat the purpose of the whole bit where Allie cheated and Brandi didn’t know about it.


ALEX MARVEZ INTERVIEWS ANNA JAY & TAY CONTI- fine
They are a cohesive team. For the second straight interview (the first was with Dasha earlier), an announcer started to ask Anna Jay a question about the Dark Order but she said she didn’t want to talk the Dark Order.

This was watchable first episode. I’ll probably keep watching. I’m sure they have some ideas for this thing, but the way the whole Allie thing played out on this show has me worried that they haven’t thought certain things out very well.