GLOW - Every Potato Has a Receipt with additional WOW - First Episode

I thought it would be cool to wrap up the second season of G.L.O.W. with the inaugural episode of AXS Television’s W.O.W—Women of Wrestling, sort of a two-episodes-in-one package deal. Every Potato Has a Receipt concludes the television deal for the GLOW ladies, director Sam, and cameramen.

Because they signed contracts, their characters are not licensed to be used with anyone else. So the Network fucked them all over. But Glen Klitnick, for the network, makes sure to infiltrate the last show in order to drop this news as other interested parties showed up to offer bids to acquire G.L.O.W. Glen does tell them they can continue to do live shows, and fortunate for Sam, strip-club owner, Ray (Horatio Sanz) throws them all a lifeline. He mentions how Vegas is the place for a live show and their product would appeal to that kind of public. Sam chuckles when he tells Ruth she’ll hate Vegas when asked.  

While television is a medium quite appealing to Sam, who cares about creating something to be seen not just in a building but through the tubes of living rooms (unfortunately, by this point, at 2:00 A.M.), keeping the “band” together and actually making a profit is worth more to him. With the news of the go-ahead for a third season, I am quite excited about what 80s Vegas will be like through the lens of the brilliant minds and talent of this wonderful show. The final second season episode primarily focuses on the “wedding” of Rhonda and “Cupcake” set for the last show of G.L.O.W. She doesn’t want to marry him just to get a green card so Bash—reeling from the loss of his friend due to an illness that isn’t specified but scares him enough that he requests a cleanup crew to remove everything from his former room—offers to replace him.

So you have Cupcake in the middle of the GLOW ring vowing his love to Rhonda (actually the character, the guy having a hard time separating the actress from the role) while she agrees to Bash’s “offer”. Bash’s admittance of love to her does ring hollow, especially after seeing him a pitiable mess by his pool as the cleanup crew goes to work. But Rhonda needs that card so Bash is a better option to her than Cupcake. I’m certainly curious as to how this union progresses…these shotgun deals, particularly between two folks who joined together under the crazies of circumstances, usually end up a disaster.

With Ruth and Russell seemingly in love—Ruth’s neck hickey gets plenty of playful mockery from her fellow wrestlers—Sam finds himself in an awkward position. Sam and Ruth even share a moment in the ring where they work around that dance discomfort, as the two will function as “co-directors” for the final show. Sam admits that he opened his heart to Justine, and Rosalie decided to pull his daughter away after doing so…he hopes to work something out. Ruth even gets gifted the crown at the end of the climactic show battle royal as all the lady wrestlers fight for Rhonda’s bouquet.

Introduced in the episode is Chavo Guerrero, Jr, a wrestler many of us fans know all too well, as Chico Guapo, along with Big Kurt Jackson (Carlos Colón Jr.), upset with Carmen for “stealing his moves”. As a concession for doing so, Debbie offers to include them in the last show as instigating heels who invade the ring side and eventually the ring, wanting the bouquet. It is a way for the two athletes to get face time on television (and they reveal one of the wrestling once long-held secrets: communication in the ring between battling parties on how to coordinate moves), with the ladies successfully removing them from the ring, eventually returning to the contest at hand. As a nice gesture to all she has done for the show, Sam and Debbie arrange for Ruth to zipline into the ring, still burdened by the cast, and “dropkick” the remaining three ladies to win the crown.

It does seem that Ruth and Debbie (a nice locker room scene has them talk about relationships, finally no longer mentioning the ex husband that broke them up) are finally okay. An amusing stripclub scene has Sam working on the shooting script when greeted by Ray while Yolanda is “on the pole”, performing for a captivated Arthie. Arthie tells a grinning Sam that she doesn’t know what is happening, but the two share a kiss in the battle royal so it does appear that they have recognized the feelings for each other. This is another great episode for Maron who has really come into his own as this middle-aged director, always struggling in relationships with anyone and often quite removed from allowing any true feelings to emerge and surface, who finally embraces those around him…it does seem that Ruth and, especially, Justine have softened his very hard edges.

Other fun and dramatic memorable moments: Sheila finally acknowledging her fans at ringside before howling and entering the ring; Cupcake calling their wrestling fake stirs the ire of Tammé before he’s dumped out of the their ring; Cherry and her man talk about life after GLOW; Debbie can’t say goodbye to her little boy and just holding him prior to the show (and her time with him in the ring) continue to convey her conflict between career and motherhood.

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Although W.O.W.—Women of Wrestling premiered on AXS TV for the first time Friday night, it isn’t a debuting product. I didn’t know any of the characters (although I know Tessa Blanchard and Kiera Hogan, from other promotions), but Santana Garrett is presented as a WOW World Champion, later explained as winning the title in a triple threat despite Jungle Grrrl, then champion, not being the one pinned. So that is basic wrestling storytelling that has existed previously and, for me, is easy to incorporate during any era…a champion has her title taken from her and wants it back while the champion wears that belt proudly, willing to defend it against her. Both Santana Garrett (a sunny, likable, very personable heroine wearing pink, with a radiant smile and positive attitude…considered “white meat babyface” by those in the business, so to speak) and Jungle Grrrl (her video package is a nice backstory segment where you see her son apply “war paint”, preparing her for her return to the ring after some time away to recover from surgery and frustration in her title being taken from her) are positioned as the prominent “good gals” while Tessa Blanchard (she shows up at the beginning to talk shit, run down her list of family wrestling royalty, and challenge for the title) and The Beast appear to be the two highlighted “villains” of the show for this particular season. In regards to The Beast, although the fanfare and reaction of the crowd (I just don’t know how much was authentic response as opposed to being created in “post production”) would seem to indicate she’s an “inbetweener” (she gets cheers despite a position of mauling opponents unmercifully), her final appearance is provoking Jungle Grrrl.

The end of the final match more or less served as a bridge of multiple storylines going forward. Santana Garrett and Jungle Grrrl will more than likely meet again but Tessa and The Beast have created future rivalries out of the gate for this season. Tessa had just recently lost the IMPACT Women’s championship so her challenging for another promotion’s belt fits her personality. She’s known for getting in the faces of those with championships, aggressively issuing her plan to take their titles. This is no different. Santana Garrett tells her to get in the back of the line, and the look on Tessa’s face of “How dare you!” with that scowl and disgust had me in ribbons. I love Tessa and have been following her on Twitter since she has rose to prominence on the Indy scene, recalling her limiting NXT work where she has had to work for pretty much all the success currently present wherever she goes now. That confidence—which goes a long way with me as it does with others—and assertive confrontational style works well for her. She carries herself as someone entitled to the top success, so Santana Garrett as the spoiler of that fits perfectly. What makes Santana different than Taya (the IMPACT wrestling feud featuring Tessa) is she’s packaged as a “I dreamed of this and am proof that dreams come true” success story while Taya has been in the game enough, including Lucha Underground where she has been primarily a showboating, cheating heel with husband Johnny Mundo, that Tessa had to work a bit harder to make that feud convincing. Santana, introduced at the beginning with no nuance as anything other than someone wanting to be a role model champion, isn’t too difficult for Tessa to work opposite as a nasty thug. Tessa pulling on the oxygen tube at the end to get Santana counted out and salvage no one losing by three-count just further provides incentive to loathe her despicable tactics.

The show is a product of McClaine, known for his association with G.L.O.W. which is why I felt it was a good addition to the final episode of Netflix’s delightful series. He’s the announcer at the beginning and establishes himself as the host of the show. The camp nature of the show is evident in just how everything content-wise is edited and produced. Trying to make the building and ring look larger than life despite probably not holding all that many more fans than a regular episode of IMPACT wrestling, the purple mat and production values (the camera is active, broadcasting extra peppy, lighting disguises the attendance, editing finesses the wrestling in the ring so mistakes aren’t as exposed) give the show a boost. The characters and how they are presented didn’t bother me as much as it might the fanbase of a program like New Japan (which this follows after). I kind of like that you have that straight-edge, hard-hitting product followed up by a more campy, cartoony (but nonetheless athletic, talented, and more than competent to carry a wrestling show in the ring) show similar in some respects to GLOW. There is sincerity: Kiera Hogan’s Fire is a superheroine rising from within the person of a bullied young woman from a broken childhood, Santana was inspired by her father’s equal love for wrestling and made it to the top of WOW, Jungle Grrrl is motivated by her relationship with her son to keep on going. There are also characters of various archetypes like “The Governor’s Daughter” (Abilene Maverick, who I really liked in the ring, as a privileged aristocrat comfortably embellishing her status), Eye Candy (a free spirit who dances to the ring and has a good time while performing her match), Khloe Hurtz (a diva who looks for attention and gets it), with also a type of voodoo/tarot-card witch named Siren letting us know WOW will soon be her next destination. You get a variety of colorful characters. What will and won’t work I’m rather curious to see. I guess out of the characters presented, excluding Tessa who I think could go to any promotion with this persona and succeed, Fire is the one I think has a ton of potential, but she’s got a lot of heroines ahead of her. Stephanie Slays requested a rematch with The Beast which resulted in a hard-to-watch, lopsided brutalization…the perfect layout to provide viewers with a serious threat to all women on the roster. I really think The Beast could be the future star of the entire promotion because she is a badass who moves in the ring like a force of nature who will run you over.