Tay Conti vs. Hikaru Shida for the AEW Women’s World Championship, from the April 21, 2021 episode of AEW Dynamite

It still blows my mind that WWE let go of Conti. She is seemingly the logical endpoint of their extensive scouting practices—how could you not make millions off judoka Barbie? This, her first title match on record, wasn’t the crispest encounter, but she did a fine job of conveying the story of trying to match technical wits with Shida and resorting to wild tactics down the stretch. It’s the moment-to-moment stuff that’s holding this back, but that’s the sort of thing that can be smoothed over with time and experience. WWE seem to love getting rid of valuable resources.

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