Ross Report - 2/26/21

The EWA has always been an exciting showcase of the best talent in professional wrestling today, but this past month has been off-the-charts even by our typically high standards! A large part of that can be attributed to the second ever Queen of the Ring, which has given this Sunday's show its name and already seen some hotly-contested matches in the first round, not to mention some truly shocking results! Now only seven superstars are left with the chance to follow in Carmella's footsteps as Queen, but we'll talk about the tournament more in due course.

For now though, let's make a quick rundown of the rest of the card, kicking off with a surprising handicap match as Ricky Starks takes on the duo of Santino Marella and Hornswoggle! This all came about thanks to Starks taking offense to the little leprechaun getting too close for comfort to the brand new Ferrari F8 Tributo "The Gambler" had treated himself to after a successful night at the poker table, locking Hornswoggle inside a shipping crate in retaliation! Well, "The Italian Stallion" didn't take too kindly to his pal being treated like that and tried confronting Starks the following week, yet when Ricky refused to apologize for his actions, Hornswoggle caught him with some "sweet shin music" to make him sorry instead! That then led to last week's SLAM!, with Starks seemingly looking to let bygones be bygones as he offered up some champagne as a peace offering...but even that turned out to be little more than a ruse, as he deliberately spilled the drink before wiping it up with Santino's treasured sock puppet pal, Hissy, and then wringing out the excess champagne right over Hornswoggle's head! Well, after issuing the challenge, Santino and Hornswoggle have their shot at revenge here, but if Starks is worried about facing two opponents (or to be more generous, one and a half), he's certainly not showing it! Will that over-confidence come back to haunt "The Gambler?" I guess we'll find out on Sunday!

While it's not an official match on the card, we found out this past week that we'd see an Arm Wrestling Contest at Queen of the Ring, albeit one that seems like total mismatch in opponents! Let's rewind a moment though and cover how this all came about, with Bo Dallas and Joey Janela getting into several heated backstage discussions that finally saw them come to blows! Their respective entourages of Mark Henry/Marko Stunt and Jungle Boy/Shawn Spears had to try and pull them apart, but in doing so, they accidentally ended up clashing as well, resulting in Bo volunteering "The Colossal Connection" to face "The New Freebirds" in tag team action the following week! Well, the former Tag Team Champions would walk out with the win on that occasion, yet rather than settle matters, it only seemed to make them worse! Indeed, there'd be another backstage confrontation between these six men on last week's SLAM!, with Janela's gloating over said victory causing Bo to issue the arm wrestling challenge for this coming Sunday! Not only that, but Bo even made a point of choosing the participants too, selecting "The World's Strongest Man" for his side while also underhandedly picking the smallest member of "The New Freebirds" in "Jungle Boy." To his credit, "Jungle" Jack Perry didn't back down from the challenge, despite being massively out-gunned by Mark Henry in a scenario like this! Still, it remains to be seen if "Jungle Boy" can somehow pull off the upset, much like Sylvester Stallone led the Allies to a moral win against the Nazis in "Escape To Victory."


There's no bigger Chris Jericho fan than "Y2J" himself, but if you ask me, it almost seems as if he's afraid of straight-up competition. With the greatest of respect to "Pineapple Pete," there are plenty of superstars on the EWA roster who would provide Jericho with a much sterner test, yet the wily veteran has refused to step out of his proverbial comfort zone to face them. Well, aside from stealing the National Championship from Eddie Kingston in an impromptu match, that is! Still, one competitor who's seen enough of these antics is Matt Taven, having just returned to the EWA after 18 long months away! "The Ruler of The Kingdom" immediately looked to make sure his name was included in the "Lottery of Jericho" on last week's SLAM! to determine who "Le Champion" would defend his gold against, yet as it turned out, someone had rigged the draw to make sure Jericho faced his old nemesis "Pineapple Pete" again, someone he'd already beaten on two separate occasions! However, Taven would expose Jericho--sorry, I mean, whoever was guilty of rigging the contest, before then goading the veteran into a challenge for this Sunday's Pay-Per-View! Even then though, Jericho would still find a way to use his 30 years of experience to try and game the situation in his favor! That means that while the Winnipeg native WILL defend the National Title at Queen of the Ring, he'll do so against whoever wins a match between "Pineapple Pete" and "The Trend" earlier in the night, ensuring that whoever his opponent is will be somewhat worn down before he has to defend the gold against them! It seems to me that Jericho is clearly trying to stack the deck against Matt Taven as much as possible, but with "The Ruler of The Kingdom" as fired up as he is, I'd suggest it might be a mistake for "Y2J" to underestimate Taven's chances! That is, if he still wants to be "Le Champion" when it's all said and done!

Speaking of champions, it's not easy being World Heavyweight Champion, as Jamie Noble knows all too well! After defeating King of the Ring Santos Escobar at last month's Resolutions Pay-Per-View, Noble has quickly found himself targeted by none other than the winning Captain of SuperBrawl XX, Jeremy Wyatt! "The Monarch" has wasted little time in establishing his credentials over the last year, winning both the Television and National Championships on top of SuperBrawl itself, while just last month ending the storied EWA career of Buff Bagwell as well! With all that momentum behind him, Wyatt now looks to cash in his guaranteed World Championship opportunity...only, as we found out on last week's SLAM!, it won't be this Sunday! Instead, the Kansas City native has already announced that match will take place in his hometown on March 28th at an event that's been dubbed MonAnarchy in his honor! In the meantime though, Wyatt has instantly put himself on the champion's radar after ruining the surprise celebration Nidia had set up for her man by viciously assaulting her guest, Noble's cousin Nunzio! Alongside his long-time manager and friend, Michael Strider, they roughed up "The Sicilian Shooter" and put him in the hospital for several weeks before then coming out to brag about it on the latest edition of SLAM! in typically arrogant fashion. Well, as you can imagine, Jamie Noble didn't take too kindly to that, looking to stick up for his family by taking the fight right to Wyatt and Strider! Unfortunately for "The Redneck Messiah" however, the numbers weren't in his favor, resulting in Jamie getting laid out by his foes! And with Noble dropped on his head with the newly rechristened Monarch Buster, Wyatt threw down the gauntlet at Queen of the Ring, challenging Noble to find a partner to face him and Michael Strider! Alas, with Nunzio still some way off from being medically cleared, you've got to wonder just who "The Peckerwood Jesus" will choose to be his partner? Then again, perhaps there's a superstar who'd be willing to volunteer for the role, especially considering how many enemies Jeremy Wyatt has made since his debut! Either way, Noble had better hope he finds someone to join him in this fight or else we might end up with our second handicap match on the card...although this one would no doubt have even bigger ramifications as we look ahead to MonAnarchy next month!


Then we move on to Queen of the Ring itself, and boy, what a tournament it's been so far! AJ Lee was the first superstar to punch her ticket to the quarter finals with a hard-fought win over a game Dana Brooke, but as it would turn out, fortune was smiling on "The Black Widow" during this past weekend's epic encounter between Daizee Haze and Bayley! Indeed, Lee was due to face the winner of that battle as the former "Hug 'N' Haze" besties went to war once again, only for the match to end in a double pin which resulted in the pair of them being knocked out! As a result, AJ heads straight to the semi-finals and has to win one less match than everyone else if she wants to walk out with the crown! The question is though, who we she face? Well, Women's Champion Sasha Banks is still very much alive on that side of the bracket, having clashed with Ember Moon in the first round, showing a ruthless edge to get past her old rival! At the same time though, Sasha just had to deal with a tough championship defense against Aliyah this past week too, and one has to wonder if competing in so many high profile matches in such a short span of time might not be ideal for the former "Boss!" Banks will face off with Shotzi Blackheart in the quarter finals, with "The Ballsy Badass" having beaten Nidia this past weekend in arguably the most straight-up match of the tournament so far! This feels like a real breakout opportunity for Blackheart, who's impressed from the moment she arrived on the EWA scene but has yet to score that one major victory to elevate her stock. What better opportunity though than denying the current Women's Champion of becoming Queen of the Ring before advancing on to face someone who's been a thorn in her side recently in AJ Lee!

That said though, it's no less competitive on the other side of the bracket either! Aliyah booked her place in the next round with a win over someone she's gotten to know pretty well over the last few weeks in ODB! However, it should be noted that Deonna Purrazzo played a big role in that win, though after ODB took out "The Virtuosa" on the latest edition of SLAM!, it seems doubtful Aliyah will have that crutch to rely on at the Pay-Per-View! Nonetheless, we recently found out here on EWA.com that "The Boujee Brand" has since pressed charges against ODB for that assault, leading to her arrest! That all-but guarantees ODB won't play a part this Sunday either, and one has to imagine that makes Aliyah one of the big favorites to walk out with the crown if her record is anything to go by! As for the roadblock standing in "The Boujee Bratz's" quarter final path though, that would be Jade Cargill! "The Total Package" showed just how dangerous a competitor she is when she (wo)manhandled Eva Marie this past Sunday, to the point where I don't even remember seeing the statuesque Atlanta, Georgia native get knocked off her feet during the match! Of course, this was Eva Marie's first ever taste of in-ring competition after only a limited amount of time training, whereas Aliyah and her abilities are surely going to provide an entirely different challenge for Cargill altogether! As well as that match though, we also saw Christina Von Eerie dig deep to overcome "The Queen of Spades" Shayna Baszler this past Sunday! This fiery young scrapper showed a lot of heart against a much more experienced opponent in the MMA veteran, who perhaps let her over-confidence get the better of her...though you can be sure the other competitors left in the tournament won't be taking Von Eerie lightly after that display! Not least of all her quarter final opponent, Charlotte Flair, who proved just how far she's come by defeating the woman who originally trained her in Sara Del Rey! That one was very much the epitome of a "human game of chess" as the late great Gordon Solie used to call it, but Flair proved herself to be a chip off the ol' block with her win. While she may have known "The American Angel" inside and out though, Christina Von Eerie brings an unknown element that "The Nature Girl" will have to be ready for if she hopes to make it to the semi-finals against either Aliyah or Jade Cargill, and then onto the final itself! With a field this strong though, it's anyone's guess which superstar is going to go all the way!

One thing is for certain though, and that's that the torch will officially be passed this weekend after the announcement that our first ever Queen of the Ring, Carmella, will be on hand to preside over the coronation ceremony at the end of the night! Even though it's not the return to the ring that I'm sure many have hoped for, it's still good to see "The Princess of Staten Island" will be part of this historic night!

And there you have it, folks! While there might not be as many championship matches as we'd usually expect for an EWA Pay-Per-View like this, it's fair to say that the big draw is the tournament itself, which seems impossible to predict from where this ol' Okie is sitting! Well, other than it's gonna be an absolute slobberknocker of a night at least! Rest assured though, whoever does walk out of Minnesota our 2021 Queen of the Ring will have earned that crown the hard way! And I, for one, can't wait to see how it all shakes out as we find out just who it is that etches their name in the history books! Until next time,

BOOMER SOONER!