By: B.P. Burke
One match back, and a champion again. Miranda Vionette’s triumphant return to PPW is a case study in capitalizing on opportunity, to say the least.
When we’d last seen the PPW Women’s Championship, Tasha Steelz had retained the title at June’s Never Back Down. A month after winning the title from Dani Mo in a four-way contest, Steelz used questionable tactics to retain the gold in the rematch.
And then, nothing.
Steelz, who was also the reigning Impact Wrestling women’s champion at the time, hasn’t appeared in PPW since, leaving the future of the championship very much in question. It’s common knowledge that promotions reserve the right to strip a champion of their title for lack of defenses, and as Steelz’ commitments in Impact and elsewhere grew, so did the calls for her to defend the championship or relinquish it.
Meanwhile, Dani Mo hardly rested on her laurels. In August, she competed on an episode of WWE Raw. Back home in PPW, she faced an entirely new level of competition, facing off with former Impact World Champion Tessa Blanchard, and even in defeat, she impressed the third-generation star so completely that Tessa returned a month later to fight by her side.
On November 12, five months and a day since the PPW Women’s Title had last been defended, the patience of PPW leadership had finally run out.
The match had already been set for PPW Thunderstruck: Dani Mo facing off against newcomer Zayda Steel, who’d been making waves South of PPW’s home territory and two returning stars: Miranda Vionette and Riley Krowe, both well-known to longtime members of the PPW Nation. What wasn’t clear until just before the bell rang, was that this contest would be to crown a new women’s champion, Tasha Steelz’s run having been vacated.
And, like the last time the championship had been defended, questionable tactics were used, but that did nothing to change the result. Miranda Vionette’s PPW homecoming ended with her leaving the Signature Events Center a 2-Time Women’s champion, shocking a crowd that expected the match to be little short of a coronation for Dani Mo.
What comes next? One would certainly think Vionette will stop at nothing to make this title reign a more successful one than her initial one, which ended in her first title defense. Dani Mo, who offered no excuses in a post-match interview made more difficult due to a throat injury suffered from strikes to the neck from Vionette, will certainly be looking to work her way up the ladder as well. It’s also possible that we haven’t seen the last of Steel and Krowe.
And looming large as the first talent announced for PPW’s next show, Home for the Holidays, is Notorious Mimi.
Making her return to PPW after nearly a year gone, Mimi undoubtedly remembers that the last time she set foot in the Signature Event Center, she was on the losing end of a scramble match to crown a #1 contender to the Women’s Title. The winner? Dani Mo, who would go on to dethrone Adena Steele and claim the title as her own a month later.
The future of the title is now as murky as its present was before the events of Thunderstruck. But what is clear is that Miranda Vionette will stop at nothing to make her second run at the top of the PPW’s Women’s Division a memorable one, but there are a host of hungry competitors eager to make her second run just as short as her first.
Who will be the first challenger to emerge for the title? How long will Miranda's second run with the gold last? Hopefully we receive some answers to these questions and more at PPW "Home for the Holidays" on Saturday, December 10th. Tickets for the event are available at www.ppwwrestling.com/shop right now!