AEW Dynamite January 29, 2025
Yuka Sakazaki is a longtime favorite wrestler of mine, and since her departure from TJPW in December of 2023 to move to the US and be a full time member of the AEW roster I’ve been waiting for her to be spotlighted properly.
She was out with injury for a while in the middle of 2024, but came back last Fall in a short feud with AEW Women’s Champion Mariah May. Her absence on AEW programming since is odd as it’s not due to lack of availability, but regardless it’s nice to see her back and in a high profile match that might allow her to really remind the AEW audience what she’s capable of.
Mercedes Moné is of course the former Sasha Banks and has had a strangle hold on the TBS Championship since winning it last May.
Super excited for this matchup and glad it’s getting the main event slot it deserves. Going to try a live reaction, so away we go…
TBS Title Match: Mercedes Moné (c) vs Yuka Sakazaki
No one going into this has any illusions that Yuka can win here (although I think she should – a surprise shakeup on that level could create a lot of interest). So it’ll be interesting to see if they can get the audience into things enough to bite on near falls. They’re both certainly capable of it if this gets proper time.
Not looking good for that off the bat though as AEW plays a seemingly endless stream of recaps and promos before finally starting the main event at 10 minutes to the hour. Then they recap Yuka’s contendership match victory over her entrance, really diminishing her status as a challenger.
Counter wrestling to start, which is completely talked over by commentary to hype a Death Rider match on Collision.
Mercedes does her CEO dance taunt after a shoulder tackle, so Yuka returns the favor on both counts. Her mimicking the dance was amusing got a nice pop.
Announcers convey a 20 min time limit and say they’ll stay with it past the show end time if need be.
Yuka does a truncated rolling cradle for two after just a couple spins. Mercedes seemed a little off and didn’t roll with it quite right.
Mercedes NAILED Yuka with a Meteora on the floor after moving out of the way of an intended Yuka dive. Nice sequence showing the champ’s intelligence, but they really should have Yuka hit her big dive at some point.
We go to a commercial break 4 minutes in, that lasts as long as the match had been so far. Lousy way to let the main event build.
After a solid strike exchange Yuka counters a powerbomb into a hurricanrana.
A Meteora in the corner is dodged, and just as they’re starting to heat up momentum stalls as it takes Yuka two tries to do her springboard. Looks like the ropes might have been looser than she expected. Mercedes sold being dazed well and Yuka recovered quickly and hit a nice springboard on try two.
Yuka nails a brainbuster and her sliding elbow for 2.
The announcers try to sell possible ring rust for Mercedes as she “doesn’t have ring reps in” since she hasn’t wrestled since January 5th, but Yuka only had one match in that same timeframe so it doesn’t really track.
Moné hits the Three Amigos for 2. Then generates big time boos for walking back and forth across on Yuka. Yuka catches her on the turnbuckles with elbow strikes when she goes up though and hits a superplex for 2.
Magical Merry Go Round countered into a Moneymaker attempt, which is countered and Yuka level Moné with a kick. Magical Merry Go Round gets 2.
Mercedes comes right back with a backstabber into the Statement Maker, but Yuka survives by countering into a rollup for 2.
Big rolling elbow from Yuka dazes the champ. Shortly afterwards she catches Mercedes in the full body rollup that beat Deonna in the 4-way. Mercedes escapes at 2.
Mercedes gets tied up in the ropes and Yuka nails a SPIDER GERMAN to make the crowd start to come alive. Magical Girl Splash eats the knees however and the champ gets 2.
Powerbomb followed by the Money Maker retains for Moné.
Ends at 7 minutes past the hour (as per me watching on Max). Six minutes post commercials for about a 14 minute match total with 10 shown.
Solid if unremarkable match overall. Wasn’t bad and I was getting quite into it by the end, but it wasn’t what it could have and should have been. The highlights were fun and I always enjoy watching Yuka wrestle but it didn’t all quite feel properly connected. I’m harping on the time but a few more minutes to let things breath and allow for proper transitions between big moves would have made a huge difference. It ended up as glimmers of a great 20-25 minute outing shoved into 10 minutes of air time.
This was Yuka’s challenge to Mariah all over again where AEW didn’t do much to really get the crowd buying Yuka could win. And again a heel beat her squeaky clean. That said getting the main event spot at all does mean something. She did get a good reaction to her signature stuff too, so hopefully she earned a few more fans. I also hope AEW won’t forget she’s on the roster for four months again. Fingers crossed.
Thanks to everyone who’s given this a read. 2024 was a sporadic return for this blog and I hope to have more regular updates going forward in 2025.
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Derailments of Thought 