User blog:CEDJunior/Queens of Combat: The Beginning

The Queens of Combat promotion is quickly becoming my favorite of the women's wrestling promotions. They've been around for a year and have only done six shows, but I have enjoyed watching them on DVD; so much so that I've watched them more than once. Of course, November 29--four weeks from today--is the heavily hyped event that will see the first ever Queens of Combat Champion crowned! For the next four weeks, I will post blogs about QoC, beginning with this blog that takes a look back at the first four shows.

Queens of Combat is based out of North Carolina, which is Flair and Hardy Country, and just a few states above Florida, where Shine Wrestling emanates. The promotion opened its doors on March 21, 2014, and their first ever match featured Leva Bates defeating Amber O'Neal. The event began with a hilarious backstage segment that showed Amber on the phone with her then-tag team partner Santana Garrett, who was in TNA at the time, and she was bashing Leva--unaware that Leva was standing right behind her. The event saw several different women from other promotions participate, such as Jessicka Havok, Nevaeh, Amanda Rodriguez, and former TNA Knockout Sojo Bolt. Sojo also conducts the Diva Diaries interviews from Highspots, who sponsors the promotion. Queens of Combat's first main event featured former WWE Diva Serena Deeb competing against former TNA Knockout and Gut Check winner Taeler Hendrix. Serena was the villainess in their match, which took place just two months after her debut and heel turn at SHINE 16. Taeler went on to defeat Serena, but both women gave stellar performances in what was a truly magnifcent match that was deserving of the main event spot.

Queens of Combat's second show took place on June 13, 2014, and the roster would grow during that show, as more different women participated. One of the women who worked the event was former NXT Diva Audrey Marie, who was part of FCW/NXT for two years. In what still stands as her only post-WWE match, Audrey Marie was defeated by Heather Patera. The event also saw the debut of Tessa Blanchard; in fact, Tessa competed in her very first match of her career at the event. After Miss Rachel defeated Amanda Rodriguez, she laid out an open challenge, which was answered by Tessa. Despite a game effort, Tessa came up short against Rachel.

The show's first match stood out to me, as Amy Love competed against Solo Darling. Amy appeared on the first show and was one half of the babyface team with Amanda Rodriguez, but regarding the second show, Amy portrayed a villainess against Solo; using her height to taunt her opponent. Amy defeated Solo, but both women were attacked by Jessicka Havok and Nevaeh, who dubbed themselves as The Killer Death Machines. The pair competed in the main event and defeated Taeler Hendrix and Sassy Stephie; with Stephie competing in a rare babyface role.

After learning about Queens of Combat 3, I figured out how QoC does their events. Much like NCW Femmes Fatales, they do three shows a year; one in the spring, one in the summer, and one in the fall. The shows also emanate from different cities in NC, with the first two taking place in Charlotte, while the third took place in Winston-Salem on November 30, 2014. QoC 3 was a star-studded event, as it was the first one to feature a current TNA Knockout:  Angelina Love. The former six-time TNA Knockouts Champion competed in a losing effort against Nevaeh in what appeared to be a heel vs heel match; Angelina was a heel in TNA at the time. LuFisto made her first QoC appearance at the event, competing to a double countout against Jessicka Havok; the only time Havok failed to win in the promotion. However, the biggest name in QoC's brief history was none other that a multi-time champion, the only woman to have held the WWE Women's, WWE Divas, and TNA Knockouts Championships:  Mickie James.

What was bigger about Mickie's appearance was that it was her official return to the ring after giving birth to her son, Donovan, a few months prior. MIckie's opponent was the aforementioned Tessa Blanchard, who welcomed her back to in-ring competition. The match started out as a typical face/face match, but during the mid-point of the match, Mickie turned villainous and resorted to more vicious and deceptive methods in order to defeat Tessa. Among other things, the evil Mickie constantly pulled Tessa's hair, while giving a sinister smile, and even attempted to cheat her way to victory. Mickie would go on to defeat Tessa with a simple superkick, The match was the true highlight of QoC 3, and it's because of this that I have wanted to see Mickie and Serena Deeb together as a heel tag team, but with Serena's retirement this past summer, that would never happen.

Joey Ryan made history as the only male competitor to participate at Queens of Combat. He and longtime partner Candice LeRae competed against The Lucha Sisters (Mia Yim and Leva Bates) in the main event, with the Luchas winning.

Gibsonville was the site for Queens of Combat's fourth show, which featured even more debuts for the promotion. Among the new faces was Andréa, who was months removed from her comeback into wrestling. The former TNA Knockout defeated the renamed Amber Gallows, who began competing under her villainous "Bullet Babe" character last year. It also featured some changes to the event, one of them being a four-way match that was originally supposed to be a tag team match. The event originally announced that the Lucha Sisters would compete against Taeler Hendrix and Sassy Stephie, but due to Mia Yim's inability to appear, Su Yung ended up making her QoC debut, and the match was changed to a four way match, with Stephie winning. A tag team match did take place, as Amanda Rodriguez teamed with Amy Love again, this time against Miss Diss Lexia and Roni Jonah. It was because of QoC 2 that I expected Amy to turn heel against Amanda, but that did not happen, as the pair won their match.

The main event was a rematch from QoC 3:  Havok vs LuFisto, this time in a No DQ environment. It was during this match that Stephie turned heel and interfered on Havok's behalf; in fact, Stephie's heel turn basically began with the dissension between her and Taeler earlier in the event. Nevaeh also appeared and attacked LuFisto, and all of the involvement led to Havok defeating LuFisto.

All in all, not a bad beginning for the small promotion from North Carolina! And it would get much better in the coming months! Next Sunday's blog will take a look back at the first two rounds of the Queens of Combat Championship Tournament, which took place in June.