Gonna need a little disclaimer for this one. The Kylie Rae/Leva Bates match has not been advertised directly by AEW or by any of the competitors involved, and so may not actually be scheduled. It has however been tweeted about by ITV, including showing the same graphic that acts as the featured image for this page. And yes, that unfortunately is the best quality of said graphic available… ITV tweeted it as part of a much larger image and it had to be cropped and blown up.
General consensus is that ITV were not meant to show this.
That could mean the match was pulled or they simply didn’t want to announce it yet. With the Road to Fyter Fest having concluded, it seems the only way this will become a thing is if it ends up being made impromptu in some way.
That’s still entirely possible mind you, and it’s not as though ITV would’ve pulled the graphic from nowhere. AEW went to the trouble of making it and even sending it out to their providers, so they had to be very much planning on it being added to the card atleast for a while. Additionally, ITV have still not taken down the tweet days after the fact. If this was entirely misleading think there would be much more pushing for a retraction from AEW’s side.
Plus, Kylie was involved in a segment with the Librarians at Double or Nothing. Said segment it was far from contentious, but it may well have been intended as foreshadowing. On top of all this, when speaking about the Riho/Nyla/Yuka triple threat, Brandi made it pretty clear that it would not be the only women’s match.
I assure you, if there was not so much evidence that this was a thing, I would not be making this preview in spite of it not being advertised. Just wanted to let everyone know what the situation was. May not happen, but just in case… this preview exists! With that finally out of the way, let’s look at this match.
Kylie Rae vs. Leva Bates w/Peter Avalon
I personally think the main reason ITV effectively leaked that graphic is because of how hilarious the billing is. Just, seeing “The Librarian” Leva Bates w/ “The Librarian” Peter Avalon, it’s great. I mean it’s dumb, but it’s the kind of dumb that’s pretty in line with my sense of humor. It’s also obviously kinda meant to be a stupid situation in the first place so whatever.
Anyhow, this match! The eternally smiling and raving Kylie vs. the staunch librarian on a quest for quiet. For as silly as the characters involved are here, this could actually be really damn good. It’ll undoubtedly have a goofy spot or two, it’d be kind of weird if it didn’t really. But it’s going to be a huge step-up in workrate from Nakazawa/Jebailey, I can tell you that much!
Kylie Rae impressed a lot of people that might’ve never seen her before at Double or Nothing, and not just for her contagious smile and intense likability. She was arguably the most talented woman in that match, or atleast the sharpest with her execution. Everything she did looked great, even surprisingly devastating in places. It’s easy to make the joke of her being AEW’s Bayley but… well, yeah, she kinda seems to have that down. (Reminder: In NXT, Bayley was basically their Hiroshi Tanahashi. I give no further qualifiers to that, there are none needed.)
Leva for her part is an indy veteran, and more than a solid worker in her own right. I have every reason to believe that they’re going to let her show that off, no matter what she wears. Although if she’s gonna be wrestling in casual shoes that might be a bit of a hindrance…
The way I see it, Kylie’s got this.
With her stellar showing, she’s earned a win. And I think many people, myself included, see her being a big part of the women’s division going forward. Granted, Peter being at ringside will probably play a factor and you could argue he might play into the finish to help Leva win. It would help establish the Librarians’ relationship, since it’s their first match together as an act. You could even say it’d help Kylie’s sympathetic appeal to have her be screwed out of a win, but I just don’t think it’s where they’ll go.
It’d be better to strictly have her lose her biggest matches for a while if you wanted to accomplish that. And with all due respect, this really isn’t a marquee affair. So yeah, I’m picking Kylie to win.
AEW Fyter Fest takes place on June 29th, and will be streamed for free for US viewers on B/R Live for all those who sign up. The rest of the world will be able to purchase the event on Fite.tv.
For previews on the rest of the show, check out the links below:
Michael Nakazawa vs. Alex Jebailey
SCU vs. Private Party vs. Best Friends
Jungle Boy vs. MJF vs. Jimmy Havoc vs. Hangman Page
Yuka Sakazaki vs. Riho vs. Nyla Rose
Kenny Omega & The Young Bucks vs. Laredo Kid & The Lucha Bros
