3 months ago
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AEW/Ricky Havlik
The women's Owen Hart Foundation tournament finals are officially set, as last year's winner, Willow Nightingale, will take on Mariah May, who scored an upset victory over Hikaru Shida on "AEW Rampage." May and Nightingale will collide on next Wednesday's "AEW Dynamite," with the winner moving on to face Toni Storm for the AEW Women's World Championship at All In 2024.
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The match served as the main event for "Rampage" this week, and it was competitive, though Shida spent more time on offensive and at one point got in the face of longtime rival Storm at ringside after dropping her protege, May, to the floor. May won clean, however, after reversing Shida's Katana finisher into a rollup for the victory. May now heads into the finals with momentum, as the first two rounds of the tournament have seen her defeat the only two women, aside from Storm herself, to have held the women's world title in the past calendar year — Saraya, who May defeated over the weekend on the AEW x NJPW Forbidden door Zero Hour pre-show, and Shida, the only woman besides Storm to have won the title three times and who also owns the AEW record for longest women's world title reign. Shida hasn't had much luck in "The Owen," however; she was pulled from the 2022 tournament after the first round, didn't participate in 2023 at all, and has now been eliminated after a single first round victory over Deonna Purrazzo.
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Nightingale won the 2023 women's tournament and has advanced to the finals for the second consecutive year, defeating first Serena Deeb and then former friend Kris Statlander. With the winner of the tournament earning a title match against Storm at All In, Nightingale could win herself the opportunity to avenge her championship loss to Storm at AEW x NJPW Forbidden Door 2023. If May wins, however, she'll take on her own beloved mentor for the championship at Wembley Stadium in her native country of England.
