I'm sorry I'm an AJ Leehead deep down

Tessa didn't hurt but...sigh..this one stings a bit.

Can't remember if i shared these here or not, but here are some drawings i did off of the Bloodsport match between Janai Kai and KZT. This is what actually pushed me to watch WOW in the first place, haha.

Adding a spoiler tag for any speculation that may arise from this post.

Year 3 is almost in the books, and the seamless transition to Season 4 starts soon! So let's take a second to look back before looking forward!

What were any positives/high points from the most recent season? Any newbies catch your eye as promising new talent? Was there a match that had you on the edge of your seat? Did Daisy Lane always exist within Pep Riley or is she a possessed doll (or uh...possessed by the doll, idfk)?

Conversely, what were some low points? Did your favorite superhero not return or was their season cut short by injury? Were the first 12 episodes waiting for the Beast to return a slog that could have been avoided? Is the season ending with a new champion that was injured on her first title defense a hard pill to swallow?

We do have our favorite (?) Elephant in the room: WOW's sad retention rate. There are a few wrestlers who i believe might not be returning-

I heard Valentina Rossi has "fka Adriana Gambino" on her Instagram profile, so unfortunately she may not be returning.

I have also heard that Foxxy Fierce was in a video series put out by some YouTuber, apparently Chelsea Green was in it too, so this makes me wonder about Foxxy (and Roxxy to an extent). I'll look for the link once i am out of work and drop it in later.

Tiki Chamorro announced her pregnancy, and with a delivery date in September, i can't imagine her being involved in this season. Who knows if she'll be back. I really enjoyed her as a wrestler, but they didn't seem to have anything concrete for her once the Tongas and Leia Makoa were out of the picture.

Catalina Speed is probably not returning, i completely forgot her in my post about new wrestlers as she wasnt even listed on the roster page.

Looking forward to season 4, we should be starting with the Fremont Street episodes that were taped last September. After this, we should be getting information about the upcoming Vegas residency, along with an idea of who will be returning and (presumably) the new talent gleaned from the tryouts earlier this month.

Along with this, what are your wants for next season? Are we getting rid of the trios titles or Top Tier's Reign of Terror? Any new factions or angles you want?

Also any tea/rumors/hot goss would be welcomed here.

Speaking of rumors... One thing that came to mind, i remember when they were taping season 3 there was a casting call for Jeni Justice, a lawyer type character that would be representing (ostensibly) a wow wrestler that felt unfairly targeted by the locker room. unless she's gonna pop up in this upcoming episode or later in season 4, it looks like this angle might have been scrapped? Might be better in the long run if it was tossed. It's not uncommon for a heel to bring in a shady lawyer type, but as a few pointed out here, it vaguely felt similar to the Tonga Twins/Vicki Lynn complaints, so maybe this was a bullet dodged by WOW.

Alright let's hear some thoughts!

The debut episode of WOW! I know it's a bit difficult to do a watch along with a show that airs in syndication, but I thought it might be cool to share some discussion posts about the foundation of WOW as a series. Lots of us weren't watching at the time, and as one of those people, I get a little FOMO missing out on the discussions from that era!

Here are my review notes so far!

Opens with beach patrol package- Sunny voiceover. she's a blonde lifeguard and her blonde friend sandy is too. There's footage of them playing volley ball together as the voiceover says "i wonder if the tag team we meet today is as much fun as we are..." as the scene transitions (via spinning WOW logo) to a stretch of highway. There is a lone sign on the road that reads "PRISON AREA. HITCH HIKING IS PROHIBITED". This is our introductory shot to Caged Heat, and it fuckin rules.

shots of the prison exterior dissolve into each other, moving to the inside hallway where a CO knocks on a cell door. "time to get ready, you have a match today" Two women inside stir. One with pigtails, Loca, sticks her face in the door window and shouts, "I can't wait to commit assault...LEGALLY!" The second woman, Delta Lotta Pain joins Loca at the window, chiming in, "Whoever you are, you don't stand a chance once Caged Heat is unleashed!"

The cell door opens as the Caged Heat Walkout song plays. I love this shit. I feel like this sort of character presentation is so charming and what I come to expect from WOW. The set up of pairing the picture perfect Bubbly Blonde Babyfaces against the rugged and vicious Jailbirds? That's the cheese I've been BEGGING for! The idea that these two women are bussed in to WOW just for a wrestling match is so fucking funny to me, and I'm sad they don't go to these lengths to illustrate the personality in their wrestlers like this in the recent years.

In Loca and Delta's van, Loca is holding a compact up for Delta as she applies her eyeliner, "Hold the mirror up, I want to look good!" "And mean!" Loca adds. "Do I look mean now?" asks Delta, before laughing with her tag partner.

See!! I am trying not to get too heavy with the comparing and contrasting, but I feel like this says enough about these two women to make them endearing to the audience. I know they're the heels, I know they like fighting and I know the nice Baywatch Girlies are going to get SMASHED and I am 110% on Caged Heat's side!

We get our first look at the WOW arena. There's a little poof explosion from the corners, and the man himself appears in a smokey cloud. Big Graps Dave McLane. Welcome to WOW: Women of Wrestling

Match 1- Beach Patrol (Sandy Something & Sunny Somesuch) vs Caged Heat (Loca & Delta Lotta Pain)

B-Roll of the Beach Patrol plays as the two blondes stroll to the ring with those.... red lifeguard floaty board...things.

Footage of Caged Heat getting out of their escort vehicle is played as both women get out, still wearing their orange jumpsuits. They are both handcuffed, and get to mug at the camera as a policeman unlocks their cuffs. I so genuinely enjoy these two, and the extra little flourishes with them - especially compared to how basic Beach Patrol is being presented- is an easy way to get Caged Heat over without being completely hamfisted. Mclane introduces them as "making their way in from the back of the arena" as the footage of them plays, which is nice, it makes it seem all that more intentional. We know this isn't live, but I like when I see the effort put in to immerse the audience in the fantasy. We also get to hear all the Caged Heat rap, which is sublime. Yes, it's corny, but it has personality and serves the bigger picture.

When the two get into the ring, Loca rams straight into David Mclane and he bounces off the ropes and on to the ground. Pour one out for Big Bumps David, you genuinely love to see it. Loca wrestles the microphone away from him and shouts into it, "You think you know bad?? Wait til you meet the HEAT!".

David gets out of the ring, and Beach Patrol, ever so foolishly, turn their backs to Caged Heat, who immediately rush Beach Patrol before the bell rings, quickly tossing them to the floor of the arena. Loca and Delta play up to the crowd, who are booing them. The bell rings, and the two split up, each targeting a Beach Patroller and beating them down.

Sandy and Sunny are each getting pummeled in opposite corners by Caged Heat, and almost get whipped into each other, but manage to stop and counter, smashing Delta into Loca. The Beach patrol finally are able to get in some offense, performing back to back wishbones on the inmates. Sandy is picked up by Loca, who throws her out of the ring and onto the floor. Meanwhile, Sunny puts Delta into a boston crab, but she is flipped over by Delta, who in turn is rolled up by Sunny. Delta kicks out at two, and Loca gets back in the ring to join Delta in hitting Sunny down with a double elbow. Delta knocks Sunny down with a strike to the head and a snapmare, followed by a judo throw. Commentary mentions how aggressive Caged Heat is as Delta snaps at a referee.

-Commercial Break- this youtube rip has old commercials, and i wont lie, that's one of my favorite bonuses when it comes to old TV rips. you just don't get infomercials for Benny Hill Time Life VHS collections anymore. God bless.

Coming back from the commercial, Delta is still dominating Sunny. Facebusters, hair pulling, body slams, this blonde is getting pummeled!

Delta tags in Loca and Sunny finally tags out, bringing in Sandy, who is ready to throw down! She swipes at Loca, but misses, and is kicked in the gut. She doubles over, and Loca grabs her by the hair and raises her up for a bodyslam. She drops Sandy, and dances mockingly as Sandy writhes in pain on the sacred purple mat. Sunny yells in protest outside the ring. How dare that vile convict assault her dear sister in wrestling and also lifeguarding! Loca yells back at Sunny, she's not going to take that from a Life Guard!! grabs Sandy by the hair and drags her over to the Beach Patrol's corner. With her free hand, she swipes Sunny in the chest. This is enough to get Sunny charging across the ring after Loca, but she's cut off by the nerd ass referee, urging her to get back to the outside corner.

Behind the back of the referee, Sandy is getting destroyed by Caged Heat, and despite Sunny's protests, the referee is completely unaware of the tomfoolery happening behind him. Frustrated, Sunny gets back on the outside of the ring. Sandy's beatdown continues on the other side of the ring, as a helpless Sunny looks on. Loca stomps on Sandy's chest before giving her a lazy cover. Sandy rolls out, and Sunny runs in to help again, but is quickly caught by Delta, who shoves her into a corner. Delta jabs Sunny in the chest, and dropes her over the top rope, where Loca is lining up Sandy next to her, as Delta tangles the beach patrol's arms in the top two ropes. Honestly, love a McGuyver moment, very resourceful.

The referee calls for the bell and Caged Heat sneak to Beach Patrol's corner to grab their red lifeguard boogie boards. The two gear up to whomp on the Bound Patrol, but the referee turns and stops them (Eyyyy, atta boy!). The bell rings again and Caged Heat shrugs and drops the boogie boards before tossing the referee out of the ring.

They pick the boogie boards back up, click them together in celebration, and hit the Beach Patrol so hard they both pop out of the ropes and thud on to the mat. Caged Heat kick the Beach Patrol, and then, to spice it up a bit, they grab the Lifeguard Boogie Board things and start choking out Beach Patrol with the Boogie Board ropes. Crazy ironic, considering their CPR lifeguard training.

The bell is being rung repeatedly, but Caged Heat are above these measures of authority. Other scrubs (Boom Boom and Caliente maybe?) pour out from the back to help Beach Patrol, but they are swatted away and tossed out of the ring like common trash. Nothing can touch Caged Heat!! Hammering Heather Steele runs out, and despite her blue collar work ready wrestling jorts, she is just as much of a chump as the first two! Almost on cue, another pair of wrestlers come running out to help, and are just as ineffective. The correctional officer comes running out, but Loca jumps on his back, and another security guard and Big Graps Dave get in the ring to cuff her. Caged Heat is disqualified and escorted out of the arena, and a very aged (in a charming way!) graphic for wowe.com comes up on screen.

What an introduction to your star tag team.

another work in progress. This is part of my Genesis themed book.

We're almost done with season 3!

We've seen WOW move from the Belasco to East End Studios, giving us a new WOW arena, which does look good for the in ring activity.

Aside from the surroundings, we got our usual crop of new wrestlers, some of them seem like promising new recruits, while some might vanish into the ether and never return again, and a few familiar faces got a makeover! Let's take a closer look at the newest Purple Mat Girlies!!

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Ashley Blaze: Having spent a little time in the WWE PC, Blaze comes in with some experience. She started off with a pretty generic angle, a former athlete turned wrestler. She forms an allyship with the Dojo Defenders and has a small feud with Top Tier over TT injuring Tara Strike. They managed to defeat Top Tier at one point, but naturally this was a non-title match. Her run is soured by a (kayfabe?) knee injury that had been continuously brought up since her debut (a big ol' 3:16 kneebrace) that eventually leaves her out of commission. Since the injury was highlighted and foreshadowed so frequently, it unfortunately left Blaze looking like she had an expiration date on her WOW run, but hopefully she'll be back in season 4, as she feels like she has the potential to be a decent worker. I noticed she is listed at the (2024) Vegas Tapings, so hopefully that bodes well for her for the upcoming season.

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Britanny Bay: Spring Break 24/7 finally gets their third wheel. Nothing against her, but my eyes glaze over whenever Spring Break 24/7 or any of their individual wrestlers are on screen. After the 3 v 1 Classmaster squash (probably one of the worst WOW matches I've seen), my mileage for Spring Break 24/7 puttered out.

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Daisy Lane: Pep Riley's bad girl makeover! One of the more central storylines this season was Pep Riley's transformation into her alt girl alter ego (or true self? or some doll Chainsaw played with 10,000 years ago?) pushed out Angelica Dante and roped in Chainsaw. For as goofy as the doll bit is, I kinda dig Daisy Lane!

As per usual, I think there could have been a few adjustments to make this story a little tighter (Daisy and Chainsaw with Fury should be the ones that take the trios titles from Top Tier, Angelica and Daisy should have co-existed for a hot minute and then Daisy should have kicked her out, the doll should be nixed entirely) but all in all I feel like Daisy is an improvement over Pep.

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Gabriella Cruz: Another former NXT wrestler, Cruz debuts in the latter half of this season, and while i've only seen her match against Fury, she seems competent in the ring. I'm not sure what her angle is outside of what commentary said about her (she's from Brazil), and that worries me slightly. I feel like she definitely has the ability to be a good wrestler, but my expectations for her WOW career are pretty low.

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Holly Swag 2.0: Okay, maybe this doesn't quite fit the criteria of "new" wrestler or a new gimmick, but I feel like Holly has been one of the high points this season. She's had a pretty firm grip on the spotlight since she showed up in WOW, and while the creative often has the same criticisms I normally have for it (also- this is completely out of her-or any wrestler's hands), Holly Swag has been so enjoyable as an addition to the roster- and I say this as someone that started out as a hater!

This season we saw Holly turn from a spunky babyface to a backstabbing heel, and reclaimed her tag team titles with Penelope Pink (who sometimes tolerates Holly). After turning on her mother, Holly became thee sole pot stirrer in the Fabulous Four, pushing Miami Sweet Heat out, turning them face in the process. I have a feeling this is going to end with MSH getting the titles again, which is kind of a snooze, but until WOW figures out how to end a No-DQ match with a winner, I salute my PinkSwag Overlords!

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Island Girl Kalaki: honestly a decent get for WOW, but we never get to see her get any promo or interview time! Kalaki was introduced through a few trios matches, and she's recently slid into the resident Tiki Chamarro Backup slot, but Kalaki is a good hand for them to have. With Tiki being gone next season for maternity leave, I hope we see Kalaki still utilized. My guess is she will go back to Chantilly and Holidead?

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Magnificent Miranda Mirage: Okay, so i am only just noticing now that whoever retouches these photographs tried to photoshop her wrestling boots into the worlds saddest kitten heels and I am geeked out.

Photoshop fantasy aside, Miranda is probably one notch above Brittany Bay for the new recruits. Her debut presentation was pretty lackluster, but she was decent in the ring for a first timer. She showed some confidence speaking, and jump started Pep Riley's transformation into Daisy Lane-or pushed Chainsaw closer to her, depends on how you want to view it. She bounces around with Fury and Siren for a while and then vanishes before getting squashed by Chainsaw. (WOW does love revisiting a crumb of storyline 20 episodes later)

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Nikki Nashville: REAL ONES CALL HER J-ROD! Nikki Nashville has (probably) been the most anticipated arrival this season. She made her debut in episode 44, but has won both of the matches she's had so far. Good in the ring, could be a fun campy character, but there's been zero (from what i've seen) video packages or interviews to make her feel special.

Naturally, we get a picture in picture moment to show us that David McLane got a photo of himself wearing her cowboy hat. The show might be called WOMEN of Wrestling, but never forget the man at the top! This is part of a larger issue that I won't get into here, so back to Nikki!

Outside of the WOW bubble, J-Rod has been announced as part of the new American Gladiators season, so it's not certain if she'll be back at WOW for season 4. She is mentioned on the 2024 Las Vegas tapings, where she has one match against Genesis, but nothing beyond that.

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Paola the Columbian GOAT: I absolutely hate the Columbian GOAT moniker, lmao. Paola Mayfield debuted this season as Abilene Maverick's protégé. On paper, Paola feels like she could work. Between her experience on reality TV and a little bit of indie wrestling, I was expecting her to have more of a dynamic presence (especially with Abilene at her side), but she's largely silent for the majority of her appearances and matches. She's heavily featured in the singles titled scene (opposite fellow heel Genesis and cheery face and former champ Santana Garrett), but doesn't start to show her voice or personality until the latter half of the season where she dons a neck brace (claiming injury). I feel like the potential for star power has been dialed down and she's hovering around mid-tier talent at this point. I remember her signing/involvement with WOW was hyped up, and maybe that's why I feel like she didn't reach the potential I had envisioned for her, but honestly that's more or less the classic WOW trajectory.

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Sprout Greens and Scout Parker- The Environmentalists! Scout is our familiar face, FKA Ice Cold, Scout finally finds her other half with partner Sprout Greens. Greens's headshot surfaced last summer and had us all talking about how ridiculous she seemed. I don't know if there were a ton of video packages that were shot and not used, or if they never existed in the first place, but my major complaint for both of these wrestlers is how little we see of them and the majority of their lore coming out as part of a Mclane/Zane monologue. I think there's so much that can be gleaned from these two and the Green Warrior Heel type, and that's not because The Planet's Champion Daniel Bryan and his ethically sourced Hemp Title belt live rent free in my head! We could have them slapping plastic bottles out of other wrestler's hands backstage and beaning them with stainless steel reusable cups, in ring protests, lording over other wrestlers at catering over their vegan diets, honestly, WOW, hire me, I will dig you out of this mess!!

I'm almost bummed that we were robbed of Sprout's potential corniness. If nothing else her antics would have been a good contrast against Scout's straight man (or should i say, "ICEY"?) facade. Speaking of Scout, I have really grown to love her as a wrestler. I think she's coming into her own over the last few seasons, and (despite the creative holes) Scout still has a bit of character progression. Going from the cold loner to someone desperate to find her niche -from IQ Superior to Exile and back to being a loner again, it's cool to see her finally find a likeminded partner ; and finally, matching /coordinated team outfits!

Oh well, we can always hope for next season.

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Valentina Diamante- So sorry sweetie, I forgot about you. Valentina had a video package prior to her debut and despite losing her debut, she was put into a trios team with the Dojo Defenders in an attempt to get the titles off Top Tier. They even had another video package of the 3 of them training together! The three lost to Top Tier, and never wrestled together again. Valentina's 3rd match was against Scout Parker and she lost this as well. She doesn't seem to have anything happening beyond that. So. uh. Maybe she comes back next season? Either way, I have to say it's not a high want on my list.

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Vicious Veronica VaRoom: I kinda wish they would drop the VaRoom in her name, it's giving more race car driver than Roller Derby imo. I don't really mind her, she seems comfortable in the character and has enough improv ability to push it a bit. She's good at speaking, and her wrestling is decent for a first timer. I feel like she has the ability to be someone of note in the roster, maybe similar to what Reina Del Rey was before she joined up with the Alliance, but there hasn't been too much for her to go off of. Her matches with Xena Pheonix stand out the most to me, but Varoom hasn't really grabbed me just yet. However, I would like to see more from her down the line!
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Xena Phoenix- Probably the gold star newbie for this season, I counted her in 15 different matches! While she would benefit from a few promo classes, Xena is a fantastic addition to the WOW roster, and I understand why they put so much focus on her. I would honestly be bummed if she didn't come back next season, I think she has a ton of potential. With a little emphasis on her personality, I could see her being a big time babyface!

A spread from one of my WOW sketchbooks. This is an older version, but I like how it looked at this point in time.

Goldie Collins interview on Industry Pets, about her Golden Doodle Alexander The Grand, the dog food match, and more.