Aussies Abroad: Ripley not the only one struck with bad luck

Welcome back to another week’s installment of Aussies Abroad, where we take a look at the Australian wrestlers kicking ass and bringing the Australian name overseas.

Let’s start this week’s coverage off with the devastating result of 2024’s Bad Blood, which saw Adelaide’s Rhea Ripley unable to take back her Women’s Championship belt from Liv Morgan. The tension between the two women goes way back to 2022 when Ripley betrayed Morgan as her tag team partner after the pair lost to Carmella and Queen Zelina, Natalya and Shayna Baszler, and Sasha Banks and Naomi. Since then, the two haven’t had too many run-ins, until Morgan injured Ripley’s shoulder earlier this year, forcing her to vacate the belt and take a hiatus from the ring. Morgan defeated Becky Lynch for the belt and made her way into The Judgement Day and Dominik Mysterio’s heart. An interference at Summer Slam from Mysterio allowed Morgan to retain the belt, which was the start of the end of Ripley and Damien Priest’s presence in the faction. Morgan and Mysterio shared a passionate kiss, which left Ripley in a puddle of her own blood sweat, and tears.

Since then, the two have been going at it both verbally and physically, and it all came down to Bad Blood, where Mysterio was locked in a shark cage above the match to put his interfering actions to bed for the night. Although this feud has been hard for the (few of us) who are enamored with both Morgan and Ripley, it has been the crowd and the Australian fans who have, and were during this match, strongly behind the Adelaide powerhouse. Before the match even started, Ripley was wiping her ass with the scum that is Mysterio (literally, the WWE store now has toilet paper with Mysterio’s face plastered on it) before the smile on her face grew even larger when he was locked behind bars once again. Ripley absolutely ripped into Morgan in the first few minutes of the match, until Morgan drove her back straight into the steel steps. Things really heated up when Morgan held Ripley’s bad leg in a submission hold for a few minutes. Although it was clear her bad leg was cramping up, Ripley retaliated with a number of hard clotheslines and a suplex, but it wasn’t enough to hold Morgan down for long, as she continued to bring hell down on Ripley’s bad leg. Things weren’t looking too good for Ripley, until she somehow countered an Oblivian, landing upright and continuing to land a big knee to Morgan and an attempted riptide. The two brutal women went back and forth in the ring until Mysterio attempted to leave the hanging cage before leaving the audience’s hearts in the back of their throats when seemingly FELL from the bars as he tried to save Morgan from being absolutely terrorised by Ripley. He luckily (depending on who you ask) was caught by a chain wrapped around his foot and was left hanging upside down just inches above the ground. Ripley was like an evil cat with her mouse hanging from a string as she completely brutalised the swinging Mysterio pinata with a kendo stick. Just as things were finally looking up for Ripley, the return of Morgan’s former tag team partner Raquel Rodriguez saw the match end in a disqualification and a win for Morgan. Things are gonna get even more interesting with the addition of Rodriquez, and we look forward to seeing how the dynamic will change between the new Judgement Day and the Terror Twins from here on out.

Before Bad Blood, Aussie giant Bronson Reed also saw a stroke of bad luck with the return of Seth Freakin’ Rollins interfering with his chances of putting the long-time rivalry between himself and Braun Strowman to sleep for good. The match, however, still brought the heat with Reed showing the WWE world just how hard the Aussies hit in-ring. After taking a few hits from Braun at the start of the Last Monster Standing match, Reed went for a massive spear on strawman through a barricade that took out the front row of fans watching on before raining down tsunamis. This saw Storwman down for over 10 seconds, but unfortunately, the ref was distracted and unable to confirm the count for the win. Reed went after security which ended in a massive sea of bodies slamming to the ground. A HUGE superplex from Reed saw the ring completely collapse, and just as the ref was about to finish the 10 count, Rollins came in for the stomp to Reed’s head which let Strowman win the match. This feud has been nothing but visually, emotionally, and physically impressive, and we can’t wait to see how much of the Aussie heat Reed will now bring to Rollins.

The bad luck continued over in AEW, with Aussie Buddy Matthews and his House of Black crew losing a three-way contendership match for the AEW World Tag Team Title. Matthews was in control of the match, as usual, until he was briefly outnumbered in-ring and rolled out to take a break on ring-side. The Private Party and Top Flight team were going head-to-head until House of Black jumped back in to assert dominance until Matthews’s partner Malakai Black was taken out. Matthews though was able to set the team back up for a win, but wasn’t able to hold their opponents down for the three count. An interference from Action Andretti saw them distracted long enough for Private Party to successfully put Top Flight away to take the win.

AEW’s women’s division was also no stranger to bad luck for the Aussies last week, with Harley Cameron seeing a defeat against Queen Aminata. Although Cameron continues to bring the heat to her matches, AEW seems to not be letting the talented young Aussie be the center of the spotlight for too long, with this match seeing her dominating her opponent for the first half with some impressive hits before being bought down a peg. Despite some impressive reversals, it was a harsh face to the corner of the ring that saw the star of the end for Cameron. A back-breaker followed by a nasty headbutt from Aminata that saw Cameron down for the three-count.

AEW star Toni Storm was also not successful in defeating Mayu Iwatani for the IWGP Women’s Title at Stardom Nagoya Golden Flight in Aichi, Japan. Despite being able to hit three consecutive Storm Zeroes, Iwatani still kicked out. Just as Storm was about to hit her with a running corner hip attack, Iwatani reversed and hit an impressive Springboard Poisonrana from the top rope to send Storm down for the three-count. After the match, Storm bid farewell to the promotion and shared a hug with her supporter Mina Shirakawa champion before leaving the building.

Also over in Japan, Henare lost his NEVER Openweight Title belt to Shinago Takagi at NJPW Destruction in Kobe. Shane Haste also saw a loss with his TMDK crew to Bullet Club during NJPW’s Wrestling Life 40th Anniversary Yuji Nagata Produce Blue Justice event.

Aussie Xena also got a taste of the bad luck over in Japan, recently losing in a 12-man match at Stardom Nagoya Golden Fight. In TJPW, Adelaide’s Kira Summer has continued to bring the Aussie name to Japan with her weekly matches. Although this week didn’t go as planned for Summer, the young talent’s work in TJPW has been incredibly impressive as she continues to make a name for herself.

This week also saw a glimpse at Adelaide’s DELTA’s WWE debut with NXT. During NXT, a promo vid was played which showed a mysterious woman in red making her way down a path leading to NXT. We cannot wait for the South Aussie powerhouse to eat up the women’s division soon.

Till next week!

Imogen Evans

News Writer + Aussies Abroad. Based in Adelaide and winner of the 2023 CPA Young Journo of the year, has been a news and arts journalist for a number of years working across radio and print, but has decided to take her wrestling addiction to PWDU. You can find her at any local wrestling night across the state with a beer in-hand and a front-row ticket to the action.