But from an undisclosed location in Greenland, you're listening to grit and glitter, the QWI award-winning podcast dedicated to the power of women's wrestling. This is our sixth annual year-end awards. This is the 2024 Glitter Bombs. (music) I can't get a cup in your head, I can't wish you'd take and it's part of what I said. I can get the wings, it's like a song on the page. I kind of wish you would see that you're not warm as with me. I am a mixed guy, too. I am a mixed guy, too. I am a mixed guy, too. I'm your announcer, Rich Fann. Please welcome our hosts for the evening. He's the founder of the brunch, the face of GCW. 2022 glitter bomb winner for favorite tag team with Bussy, America's premier song and dance man, pissing off billionaires and offending washed off over the hill wrestlers. This is Evie! Yes, we made it. Hello, it's Evie from Professional Wrestling from the internet and of course from trying not to get beat up by most of the women's wrestlers who are up for awards this year and I haven't done a very good job of that but I'm hoping that my skills will translate a little better to being the host of this awesome magical 2024 edition of the grit and glitter podcast glitter bombs. Yes, glitter bombs are an award. They are not something to fear, they're not something to be worried about, they're not something you're going to have to get out of your gear for the next two years. No, a glitter bomb is an honor and I can tell you something women's wrestling this year has been as strong as ever, if not stronger than we've ever seen it and I can say that as a former glitter bomb winner. Did you know that in 2022, yes, that's right, Ali Kachin Effie, the team affectionately known as Busy, won your favorite tag team of the year. So I'm no stranger to these magical awards but I have to be honest, it is so much better to be here in a capacity where I don't necessarily have to be involved in the action. I don't have to come to someone's rescue to save a woman, to save someone who needs saving, no, no, no, none of these women need saving, none of the people on this list, the wrestlers on this list, none of them need any saving from Effie or from any other man, which is why I do find it a little funny that one of the biggest women storylines this year has been about who gets to keep dirty Dom, who gets to keep the young fuckboy with a mustache who's got a masked daddy. Well, you know, I can't say that that's the most interesting thing for women to be fighting over but I got to be honest, if wrestling's moving in a more real direction, if we're sticking with real life stories, yeah, most of my most heated fights have been over some kind of scummy guy. What are you gonna do? I'm excited to get down to business though. I don't want to hold up this show any longer. I already want people to understand that men's wrestling, it can never be women's wrestling. I know this is very, very pointed, very opinionated. I don't know what else you'd expect from me. I'm just going to put it to you this way. When Effie gets ready for a match, it takes me about 10 minutes with six of that being tying up my boots. When I see the women prepare for matches, they have to do all of these crazy things. The makeup, the looks, the pieces, the coverings, the beautiful addition of hair sometimes, which, you know, as someone who's worked with Jericho, it can tell you it doesn't look that easy to work with a sew in. Okay, okay, okay, enough of that. Let's be honest here. I'm not going to be able to do this on my own. Along with your beautiful co-hosts of Great and Glitter, the Glitter Bombs are going to have some magical guest presenters this year. There are a bunch of people who know, who are in, who are about women's wrestling, talking about Val Capone who is here tonight, Sienna Chanel who will be presenting, the lovely Brie Montoya, and of course, one of the smartest minds in all of everything that goes on in women's and LGBTQ wrestling, Brian Bell. And I see here there's an additional guest presenter. And I imagine we're here for the same reason, which is that women have continued to kick our asses over and over and over and over. And that is the lovely Darius Carter, someone who presents themselves with class, presents themselves as a consummate professional and also presents themselves to be kicked in the face by women. I love to see it. And it's lovely to see the roles given to men in this wonderful show. The Glitter Bombs. We are subservient to you tonight. We celebrate women's wrestling. We celebrate events like Marigold Summer Destiny, like West Coast Pro doing the Queen of the Indies, GCW versus TJPW, and of course, the Queen of Thorns from DOA. And last but not least on the events, Effie's big gay brunch night. Now, the last thing I'm going to do tonight is play favorites, even though I've got to say one of my favorite people, one of my favorite wrestlers, one of my favorite artists in and out of the ring, Edith Cereal. Yes, Edith Cereal is going to be honored tonight with a flowers award that honors her beautiful, wonderful career. And I have to tell you once again, I watched back the magical Camp Leap Frog match that I got to have with Edith Cereal long, long ago. And yeah, she kicked my ass. So just know the flowers are given as a peace condolence. Please, please don't hurt me anymore and enjoy your lovely retirement. One day, one day I'll be able to get away from here, but not until we honor these women, not until we give out these awards, and not until the magic of the Glitter Bombs is felt across the globe. Just buckle up, baby, because tonight's show is going to reveal things you knew, things you wanted, and the magic of all the wrestling you've got to go back and watch, because you're not sure of everything you're seeing on this list. And how can you make a real fair judgment of what is the best of the best of the best if you don't consume all of it? Buckle up, folks. The Glitter Bombs are just getting started. And now the hosts of grit and glitter, and fear, and Harley Vasquez. Hey, it's us, the hosts of the QWI award-winning podcast Guten Glitter that you're currently listening to. That is correct. It's the first time we've been allowed to say that. So we're going to see that every single week for the end till I die. Oh my god, for the every episode for the rest of this year, for the rest of 2025, until 2025, it's until the next awards come around. Yeah, we beat Effie in that category, and then hired him to come here and humble himself for our amusement. That's how that's how mad with how we've gone. Effie, what wanted to get in good with us, because he knows, he knows game when he sees game recognizes game. Game recognizes game. I'm not going to get left behind. I'm going to ride these coattails. Well, Effie, you are welcome. You're always a shining light at the behind us now, because we are forging a pet. No, I feel terrible saying any of this. Effie's so wonderful. If Effie won every year, I would not begrunch anybody. All right, this is the Glitter Bombs. This is our year-end awards show honoring the best in women's wrestling. We do this every year. It's our last episode of the year. We create this ballot, and we post it online on December 1st, and you have two weeks to go online. I say you, I mean anybody. Anybody with internet connection, go online, and vote 10 different categories, babyface, heel, K-team, match the year, favorite wrestler. We have no qualifiers. We have no guidelines. We have no suggestions, really. It's blank spots and it's up to you to decide who you want to vote for. You want to go for somebody from WWE or AEW? Go for it. You choose TNA or ROH. Great. You want somebody from Japan, Australia, Brazil, France, South America, anywhere in the world. It's eligible. You can vote for them. All we do is tally up the results, hire a bunch of people to come in and help present the results, and then talk about them. That's it. We're innocent vice-tampters here, so don't blame us if your favorite didn't win. No, it's not us. We did our best. We cast our votes just like everybody else, but it's the listenership that really spoke. So tonight, Big Gala, tons of special guests here. They're going to help us present all of these different awards. We've got, I think, contractually, F.E. is obligated to do a musical performance later. I have to follow up with him about that. I don't think he knows that, but you read the fine print. That's probably going to happen later. And also, this year, first-time award, we're calling the Flowers Award. We are inducting Yves Cereal into the Grindler Hall of Fame. She will be here to accept that award later on tonight. It's a big stack show. It's a very special night. Yeah, we're really, really excited to introduce this new award this year and to have our inaugural inductee, someone that has been such a wonderful friend to this show, not to mention a within six years of her career and icon of the independent wrestling business and of queer and trans wrestling, both promotions and wrestlers and fans themselves. We just are so very excited to just shut up in the rooftops to make it known over and over again that this podcast is and always will be huge fans of Yves Cereal. And so it is our honor to get to bestow yet another honor on someone who has received so many from our listenership in the past. So very, very exciting. Now, we couldn't do the show every week without our team of correspondents known as the Glitter Roddy. And so to kick things off with our very first award of the night, let's turn things over to two of them. Presenting our first award of the evening, they are the two newest members of Gritten Glitter's team of correspondents known as the Glitter Roddy from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and the South of Wales. They are John Las Lazlo and Meg James. Very exciting category to be presenting in an international transatlantic way as the two newest members of the Glitter Rty. We are, of course, presenting the biggest debut or sign in. And what's fascinating is due to one of my favorite promotions, doing the absolute worst big signing. We know what not to look for. Things such as bad locker room presence. Yeah, bad reputation, stuff, nobody's excited and such and such. But with that aside, there have been some incredible signings to major promotions this year. It's been a really great year for women getting signed to big promotions. And there's been a lot of them. This year's nominees are Julia to WWE, Mercedes Monet to AEW, Stephanie Vacher to WWE, Maria May to AEW and Zaria to WWE. One incredible list of women, one incredible performers being signed to these big promotions. Some of them getting their kind of shot on the big stage for the first time. Some of them kind of reinventing their presence in a new environment. So really incredible year for signings in women's wrestling. Huge year. And I can't think of any more people that would be better off to fit this category, but there can only be one winner. They can only be one winner. And the glitter brom for biggest debut or signing is Julia to WWE. Yay. And honestly, well deserved. What I'm really enjoying about Julia's stuff in WWE so far is how she is kind of a veteran of the industry. Like she's been doing this for ages. She's had a presence in Japan and has done incredible stuff over in stardom. And yet her presentation in WWE so far does feel quite fresh without completely a reason kind of what she's already done so far. Couldn't have said it better myself. This right away, I will say this one surprised me a little bit. I don't but maybe it shouldn't have because Julia is pretty beloved by a lot of people. And there are only really, I would argue the only two people on this nominee list who are huge stars in the company that came from and are being presented as huge stars in their current company now and that would be Julia and Mercedes. Like Mariah Mae, Stephanie, Sylvia, we're popular where they came from, but they weren't like, they weren't at the level of Sasha Banks and WWE or Julia and stardom. No, Julia and Mercedes coming into their respective promotions or coming in as stars. Mariah Mae has been made in very quick to her around a star at AEW. But I don't know that I would say biggest debut or signing because that story line did so much for her. But coming in, she was playing an role of a supporter of a bigger star. So that to me would kind of discount this as like a big debut or signing. She wasn't brought in as a superstar. Now you can't say the same for Mercedes and you can't say the same for Julia. Both of these women were hyped upon entrance, like immediately hyped, hyped as the stars that they were in their respective promotions coming in and hyped as the stars that they were going to be highlighted as in their current promotion. Yeah, honestly, Mercedes should have won this one handily. And the fact that she didn't is, you know, there's blame to be cast at the feet of AEW because she came in as one of the most important women wrestlers of the last 10 years. She and Bailey single handily turned around the presentation of women's wrestling in the WWE. And I can't really think of much that she's done since she came in. She won the the TV title, not even the main that not even the main women's title. She comes in and wins the TV title. And she's had some good matches, but I don't remember anything memorable from this past year. There isn't. I mean, once they worked through the feud with Willow, they haven't given her that much to do as far as a real media storyline. They have invested all of their energy, seemingly, into telling the story, this like long term story with Tony Storm and Mariah Mae. And that's a great story. Don't get me wrong. I've been really enjoying what they've done with that with Tony Storm in this whole in this whole scenario. But to have a star, to have a superstar, the caliber Mercedes come in with such fanfare to build up and not even really having to try because she comes with her own built in huge fan base. And then to like, reach in the year and have people kind of wonder like, okay, but what's actually happened? And like for Julia to win this award, then really does say a lot about the insufficient, the inconsistent booking that Mercedes has had in AEW. They just, they are overrun with star power over there. And not everyone can get equal time, but they always, always, always. The first thing that gets cut is women's division time. And to do that to Mercedes Monet is insane. Because she is, I mean, yes, her gimmick is that she is like money. But like, yes, she makes money. She makes money for promotions. She made money for WWE. She'll make money for AEW. But you're not giving her anything interesting to do. By contrast, Julia treated like a huge star by WWE before she even arrived, came in. I want to say her second match was for the title. And by all indications, she's going to beat Roxanne for the NXT Championship this week. Now, if she had come in and got this treatment on the main roster, jumped NXT on straight to Raw, would have been even huger. But all things considered like they've done, they've done pretty much the best you can do bringing in outside signing to a show like NXT. They treated Julia the way that, you know, they probably should have treated Sarri and some of these other women over the years. But yeah, all indications are that by this, by this time next week, Julia will be the NXT Women's Champion and be leading the leading face of NXT going into 2025. Yeah, I mean, it's just, it's a big difference between somebody who's brought in as a star and treated as a star and then given star booking versus someone who's brought in as a star and treated as a star and then kind of like less to just make the most out of the time that she's been given. It's almost as if they're like, well, Mercedes can manage, like she'll be a star regardless. No, that's how you, that's how you ruin careers. That's how you bit by bit undermine somebody's power. Check back with us a year from now. Tell us what Mercedes is doing. If you keep on this track, let's see where she's at in another year. This is how you diminish a wrestler. It doesn't matter how talented they are. The sad truth of it is that booking is super, it's super dependent on booking. Six years of the glitter bombs, this is the first time WWE has taken home this award. Oh boy, okay. Well, excited for what's in store. From Sacramento, California, our next presenter is the lead official of the ugly dojo in 2024 QWI nominee for personality of a year. Say hello to the referee, Brie Montoya. As a professional wrestling referee, there are very few things I love more than a great baby face. And it's not just because they make my job a hell of a lot easier. It's watching how they connect with the fans, how they keep fighting through adversity, how they overcome challenges that might be set upon them by some shithead heels and watching them power through to victory. And the nominees for best babyface are Willow Nightingale, Jordan Grace, Mayu Iwatani, Kylie Rae, and Mia Watanabe. And the glitter bomb goes to Willow Nightingale. Alright, so a long time listeners to this program know that there are some trends that are inimitable, unchangeable here in Grenadier. There's some people who just like always win every award. And when it comes to best babyface, how do you beat Willow Nightingale? I get it. This is her fourth year in a row. I get it. I mean, she was up against some pretty Steve competition. Jordan Grace, as always carrying the weight over there in TNA, who can't just love Mayu, Kylie Rae, quite a sensual babyface, always a baby, and Mia, like, it's a stiff competition. But yeah, I mean, there's a reason why Willow takes this over and over again. I think we got to see a slightly grittier side of babyface Willow this past year, which has been cool. A tougher, more battle hewn version, but still, all at the end of the day, always the good guy. Yeah, my reward me is now a three-time nominee in this category, because, like, like Willow, she's just, and I always go back to like the Ricky Steam book of it all, because it's just like quintessential babyface. If they ever turn these people heel, somebody made a really bad mistake. Could Willow play a heel? I'm sure. She's a fantastic talented performer. Does anybody want to see that? No. She's got the heart of gold, no matter what happens. She comes out of it on the other side, doing the right thing, being a good person. She doesn't, you know, so much love some other people. She's not gonna burn somebody's house down. She's got too much integrity. No, she's just not playing that part. And I think that for any of the women on here, they could be heels if put in the right position, but it would take a lot, it would take a lot of restructuring or take a lot of storyline. And frankly, for Willow, I just don't see AEW giving them enough, giving her enough screen time and enough storyline to make that transition to heel a credible one. Instead, they just keep turning people around her, and she has to keep fighting new enemies. Not a terrible strategy if you want to keep someone face. Yeah, she's naturally loveable. There's something about her that she just seems like a good person, seems like a person you could be friends with, just shines through kids, adults, people of all backgrounds, you know, are drawn to her. And she's not a weak pushover babyface, like so many babyfaces are. Like we said, when it came time to throw hands in a street fight with Statlander, she put her hair up, she got the light tubes, and she went to work, right? So she's not a cream puff pushover, which I think is so important for a babyface, especially in 2024, 2025, is showing that I'm a good person, but it doesn't mean that I'm a stepping stone. It doesn't mean that you can just walk all over me. Like I will stand up for myself, and I will, and I'm not like, you know, not like the the Bailey of old who is like, I'm afraid to to body slam my favorite person, because they're my favorite person. It's like, no, Willow is here for business. No, it's the rules are there are no rules. Willow will fight as hard and as dirty as anybody else. In terms of the nominees in this category, I thought this was an interesting mix, because we got Willow from AEW, Jordan Grace from TNA, Maya from stardom, Muad and Adi from TJPW, and Akai Lui from the Indies, although she's also a WWID prospect now, technically, which we do a lot of time to get that, making Kari Waid to be a heavy prospect, and not just signing her nicely is insane, but that's not why we're here. Just interesting that we have like kind of one person from each different promotion. Yeah, I mean, it's it's really a fun representation here, and the way these women all play heal is different. So, or a babyface, sorry, the way these women play babyface is all a little different is all, you know, you've got Jordan Grace kind of just being like quietly abiding of the rules in that like, you know, in that like honorable babyface fashion, being like, you know, the standard bearer for TNA's women's division right now, and everybody else like is playing it in their own idiosyncratic way. So it gives you kind of a nice range of what babyface can actually look like, which I think people can kind of forget like babyface doesn't always have to be one way, like we were talking with Willow, she is a babyface who is is bright and bouncy and cheerful and makes everyone smile, but she's also a power house, and she's not going to try to try away from a real fight. It's cool to see the variety here. He is the leader of the culture. He is the only two-time ECWA super eight tournament winner. He is your inaugural and reigning, I say, men's champion. Sit down and shut up, because Mr. Darius Carter is speaking. Yes, yes. It is I, the all father and leader of the culture, Mr. Darius Carter, and who else is better to cover the topic of best heal than yours truly, or as I'd like to call us, antagonist, the one who stands against your primary hero, your protagonist, but are they truly the hero? At least in our eyes, we don't think so. I mean, we don't see ourselves as bad. The best of us don't see ourselves as villains, but we see ourselves as misunderstood, misrepresented. We believe with full conviction, full belief in what we're doing. We know the why behind our actions. We are driven and motivated by purpose. We may bend, even break the rules when need be, but the ends will always justify the means for the finest of antagonists. Without further ado, the nominees for best heal are Liv Morgan, Athena, Ally Ketch, Roxanne Perez, and Mariah Mae. And the glitter bomb goes to Mariah Mae. Interesting result here in the sense of, I think a lot of people, especially the tribalists, make the argument of like, well, WV is like all about the stories and A.W. is just wrestling. They don't have stories or characters. And yet A.W. takes home best heal and best baby face, which are arguably like the most character driven awards. Sure. And you've got some strong people in both of those roles in A.W. But as far as storylines go, there hasn't been a women's storyline in A.W. this year that has had the longevity and strength and layers as the Tony Storm, Mariah Mae storyline. And we have to remember, I keep forgetting as our biggest debut category reminds me over and over again, Mariah Mae has been in A.W. for a year. It has felt a lot longer because of how much they've been able to do with her. They've done a whole thing. They had her just, they had this storyline going from the start of her time in A.W. and it has paid off so beautifully, but not only have they worked this storyline with her and Tony and melted for all its worth, which go for it. They've also actively included Mariah Mae's former stablemate, Minashe Rakapwa in this whole thing and adding another complete layer to this storyline, adding another feud upon a partnership, upon a bonding moment, upon a past and a history. And it is impressive the level of storytelling that's happening with this story. It makes absolute sense that she wins this award for us because I know a lot of people are really big fans of what they're doing with this story and what Mariah is doing in her role in this, even if we are continually disappointed by A.W.'s women's division in general as far as booking girls. This is hard to fuck with. Yeah, I love Mariah as a heel for the same as I love Willow as a babyface, which is that Mariah is just like, she's all in on it, right? There's nothing likable about Mariah Mae. She's turned on her friends, she's despicable, she's power driven, she has no respect for anybody else, she's just like, she's loathsome. And I love that as a heel, like when they, when there are like no redeeming qualities. Yep, I, I mean, I think that she's been willing to go there. In terms of the other nominees in this category, Athena was her winner last year. I think Athena and Liv Morgan are both suffering a little from not much has changed over time. Like the months and months go by and it's still kind of the same old shtick. Like they're good in that role and Athena's always great once the bell rings. But Athena in 2024 is not it for me. Like it just felt like a lot of spinning of the tires way for something to happen. You know, I'm not even, I'm not even again. There's no reason. We've talked about this in this past year. We don't understand. I wouldn't have questioned it if Liv Morgan had taken this one. It's been a really good year for heel Liv Morgan. That storyline with Rhea and Dominic has been fantastic, given her a ton to do. It's been fun to see Roxanne as a, as a heel, not gonna lie. She was someone that, you know, years ago, we just had penned as like a quintessential baby phase, like, oh, how could you not make her a baby? Look at this. Look at this precious baby angel. And I got to say, I think she does it really well. I think she does heal really well. And Ali, like, Ali's kind of late in the year turn against her long time partner would have been enough for me to vote her best heel because no one betrays Effie and not makes the top, and not make the top of my shit list personally. But yeah, looking over this list, these are all strong contenders, but I don't think anyone has had the pure, like straight up storyline support that Mariah Bay has had here. Her turn was orchestrated so perfectly. And the way that she has played its sense, her heel turn has been so wonderful. And they've made it consistent. They've given it a consistent time. They've given her consistent feuds within the story. It's, it's all just been really well done. And to say that of a women's storyline in AW is to say something short, just short of a miracle. I will say this for Ali Catch. Six years of this award, she's the only, only the third woman from the Indies to be nominated for best heel. This award is always dominated by AW, WWE and TNA. Yeah, and we talk about this because a lot when we talk about this awards, because as we've talked about in the past, babyface and heel are roles that in the Indies can be something that a wrestler kind of flips around with because a wrestler playing a heel in one promotion may be playing a face of another promotion and so on and so forth. It's easier, I think, for voters to track these performances when they are with one promotion and play consistently. But Ali Catch, you know, aside from here and there, has largely been playing heel or at least tween tweeter for the last couple of years in pretty much every promotion she said. I think the only one that I would say that she's only ever been like over with the crowd in a face sense is enjoy. I mean, it's also hard because she people just root for her regardless. So even if she's playing heel, you know, people are still 100% behind Ali. Our next presenter is an eight time glitter bomb nominee and 2021 co winner for match of the year with Eva Suriel. She is the general manager of enjoy wrestling, the host of recurring G&G advice admin, dear Ziggy and an honorary Glitter Audi member. Give it up for Ziggy Haim. The importance of patentry in pro wrestling may be a bit subjective, but what is not negotiable is how much a look can change the entire trajectory of a pro wrestler in their career. Nothing makes you stand out from the pack quite like having an incredible look, great gear, and totally owning it. I pride myself on how much passion I put into the art of my look, whether it be as a wrestler, a wrestling manager, or a general manager. All of these nominees stand out from the crowd and all it takes is just one glance. The nominees for favorite look or gear are Rhea Ripley, Jamie Hader, Max the Impaler, and Sayakami Toni. And the glitter bomb goes to Max the Impaler. This is Max's second win. Max won this award, the same award favorite look back in 2021, which was really kind of fascinating to me because it's a great look, obviously, but it has really changed in the past few years. No, but people still really like it. I mean, what can we say that we haven't said about this look before? It is consistent and every once in a while, Max adds some element to it or takes up the intensity of the look in some particular way, whether it's contact lenses or added distress or makeup or etc. So there's always something a little different about the look and it keeps kind of elevating over the years. But yeah, they're essentially in rocking the same like Wasteland look that they have for a couple of years. It still works really, really well. It's still one of my favorite things to see at a ring. Yeah, and changes of setting often do a big deal too, because like when Max went to TJPW, they stood out so much against all the pink and the princessy kind of looks over there that it really made it feel fresh. Yeah, and I think that a lot of people who are listening to our podcast and maybe voting on these awards are getting their first like full look at Max through their work with the NWA. So like, and they're going to stay it out there too. I always joke every year our listeners have a taste, they have a title, they have any words. So for instance, this year, Max and Taylor, Rhea Ripley, Saya Kama-Tani, past winners of this award include Asuka, Shotzi, EO Sky, they like the scary kind of the scary goth baddies. Yeah, it's like your hot goth checks, I get it. Rhea Ripley is a three-time nominee, the only person with multiple nominations without winning it. Which is crazy, but like I also get it, like Rhea is kind of the bridesmaid, never the bride in this category, because someone always kind of edges her out, which is interesting. But I bring all this up to say kudos to Jamie Hader for getting on the bail, because Jamie went in the opposite direction. She came back from her long injury off and she didn't come back as a scary goth girl. She came back with like this 70s fair faucet hair and these like browns and oranges. And you know, a lot of people love that too, enough that she got on the ballot, which is huge for a not a goth girl to get on the ballot. So true confession time, you're looking at this list and who do you think I voted for? I assumed that you voted for Tiffany Stratton. I think you have me confused with Dawn. I think many people would look at this lesson and say, oh, obviously voted for Rhea Ripley in this category. But actually when I cast my ballot, I voted for Jamie Hader, because I love the look that she has come back with. I love this kind of like ugly color 70s mod look. It looks so good on her. It's a look that I've always wanted for myself. I absolutely adore it. Do I think that it is like, do I think it's the best gear or look out there? I don't know. Like there's a lot of really good wrestling looks out there. I really like what Becca's coming back with now that she's back in their ring. I've always really like, there's a bunch of people I could shout out on the indies, but I just really like Jamie Hader's like return look. I think it's so chic. I think it looks so good. And I'm just yeah, as a personal favorite, that's why I voted for it, just because I love it. And this is favorite looker gear. We're gonna have to go best favorite. It is my favorite. Here to present a brand new award are the two most senior Glitterati members. He is the promoter behind Combat Fights Unlimited. She goes to more indie wrestling shows in one month than you do in a year. It's May Day and Val Pancakes. Outside of the events that were nominated, what other women fronted or women specific events or companies would you suggest to people to maybe check into, look out for attempt to find? I will always suggest wow, women of wrestling. It's just always inexplicably just left out of the conversation. And I've never been able to understand why. It never comes up in Reddit or Twitter or Facebook or whatever. Like the internet wrestling community just tends it doesn't exist. And that kind of frustrates me. So definitely check it out. Now for people that may not be as familiar with Val, it includes women wrestlers that are like independent wrestlers as well as maybe people that are just learning to wrestle. It's about a 50/50 split. Yeah, there's a lot of independent wrestlers that are signed with them. And then they have a lot of in-house talent that only wrestle for a while. Interesting. For me, I would suggest a company out of the Midwest. They have been presenting great women wrestling through their main company, which is Dreamwave. And through their women's company, I guess, which is uprising. They've been doing women-only events like the day before their main Dreamwave events where they do feature plenty of female talent. So that would be what I would suggest of something that was not nominated. Well, of the ones that were nominated. Nominees for Event of the Year. Okay, like a drum roll. I don't know if you can hear that. There's Effie's Big Gay Brunch 9. Marigold Summer Destiny. West Coast Pro, Queen of the Indies. G-C-W versus T-J-P-W. And D-O-A, Queen of Thorns. And the glitter bomb goes to... I'll have to, like, dub in drum rolls. It's gonna be G-C-W versus T-J-P-W. Yay! Which I believe was one of the many a weekend events, if I recall. It was... I was... I had meant to go out to see it, but I also ran a show on Mainia Weekend, and if you're running a show on Mainia Weekend, you can't see any of them. But no, it was very, very good, and it's well-deserved win. You know, G-C-W has been trying to incorporate more women's or having, like, a show Mainia Weekend that is female-focused, which is nice, because I think they've had one on most of their Mainia Weekends that I can recall really since the pandemic. Yeah, that sounds right. They're very good about them, and there's a fair amount of crossover between G-C-W and, you know, T-J-P-W, just in general. So a crossover show just kind of made sense, especially on Mainia Weekend, when everyone and their mother descended upon Philly. Yeah, it was a good time. Okay, this is a brand new category. Every year at the glitter bomb, we'd like to have nine categories that stay the same, or tentacle categories, and then one that varies and changes. This is the first time we've ever done event of the year, honoring the best sort of single show, so a single independent event, a single pay-per-view from one of the big companies, a single episode of television. We said from anywhere, from anyone, just like, you want to sit down and watch a great show start to finish with some quality women's wrestling. What are you recommending to people? And I love the variety in this category. I thought the results were really interesting. And I thought it was fitting that we didn't get any WWE or AEW or T-N-R-L-S, because yeah, if you're looking for great women's wrestling, they might give you one or two matches, but you're not getting like a full night of it, like you are if you watch Merigold or the Queen or the Indies. Yeah, precisely. The idea of this award was to honor specifically an event that was going to be focused on women and/or like non-dude talent. So we really wanted it to be representative of that. And you just don't get that with... Sorry, you just don't get that with like an AEW or a WWE pay-per-view ever, a pay-per-view or a major event or et cetera. I think the one that I would have included on this list as a finalist would have been the latest New Japan startup historic crossover show, but it has happened fairly recently. So I understand a lot of people hadn't caught it yet. I forgive you all, but you should catch it. It's very good. Yeah, obviously dozens of Joshi shows couldn't miss this list, anything from Pro Wrestling Eve, anything from Mission Pro Wrestling or Bell to Bell. They're all in good contention here. So the final nominees, we get two from GCW, Big A Branch, and the GCW versus TJPW WrestleMania, we can show. We get the DPU show from Mirror Gold, Vasio Golvus, New Promotion, West Coast Pro Queen of the Indies, Big Independent Tournament over the summer, that high-end one. And DOA has a real soft spot among a bunch of our listeners. I know like I think a couple matches in that show got shouted out on a match of the year special as well. Yeah, I think any of these would have been a completely worthwhile winner, but just personal bias. I will say I was very pleased that GCW versus TJPW took this as event of the year. I had a absolute blast at that show. That was during WrestleMania weekend. TJPW talent was, there was a specific show for TJPW that was also wonderful, but this one allowed for some of the strong, the abundantly strong women's talent and DCW and other promotions to make guest appearances. And it was just nonstop fun. Lots and lots of really good variety in this match, too. You had Session Moth in this show. You had a really fun Stepped-a-Lander Hyper Massow match, which was just totally ridiculous. Dark Chic was in this one. We had an alley catch versus Bazooki, which was great because Bazooki, if you're sleeping on her, you need to wake up. And it was fun for a lot of like GCW Indies people who are real big followers of alley catch to get maybe what was their first live watch of Mazooki. TJPW shows, on this end of the estates, are a rarity. And so I think part of the special quality of this show itself was just simply the rare occasion of it. But yeah, really, really pleased to see that this got the award. It was definitely one of my favorite shows of the weekend. I had a blast with a lot of the collective shows, but this was by and large probably the most consistently fun one that I watched. Our next guest is a social media personality and broadcaster with promotions like Full Queer and The Ugly Dojo. Please welcome Sienna Chanel. Thank you. Thank you for having me. Now, this category has a very special place in my heart because this year has been a breakout year for myself as a content creator. But I'm not talking about myself. I'm talking about these wonderful ladies that had a really amazing 2024 that they're garnering a lot of eyes within the wrestling industry. No matter how many years they started, like whether it's one year, two years, or even so many years ahead, and which wrestling company they representing, they're already marketing themselves as to being one of the many talented female wrestlers that everybody has been talking about it, and especially their incredible performance. Here are the nominees for future stars are Stephanie Vacur, Jada Parker, Tatum Paxley, Gabby Forza, and Maggie Lee, and the glitter bomb for future stars of 2024 goes to from WWE Jada Parker. Long time listeners to this show, no, M&I don't follow WWE. I grew up on WWE and the Authority era, where every episode of Monday Night Raw opened with Triple H and Stephanie talking for half an hour, just killed me off, burned me, and that was it. And then when NXT went to two hours and every week, that killed me off NXT as well. But this summer I checked back in because NXT was coming to town for not a takeover, whatever they call them now. And I went to that and so I said, you know what, I will sit down and I'll check back in with NXT. I watched two months of NXT before deciding this isn't for me. It's given Glee, it's given Riverdale, I can't do it. But Jada Parker was a standout for me of the time that I watched. All the young women on the roster, and they're a lot, we'll give him props there. I don't want to give Shawn Michaels props for anything ever, he's the devil. But I'll give some props there and that there are a lot of women on the show getting presented and represented. And of the young class of the women who haven't wrestled it elsewhere before, who this is their first time ever in a wrestling ring, Jada Parker started to meet. She's cool, she's hot, she's badass in the ring. And I definitely think that she'll be somebody to keep an eye on in the next couple of years. So, very deserving winner of this award. >> Yeah, absolutely. As little as I know about what's happening at NXT in any given week, the things I've seen of Jada have been really impressive. And I know that she's not super long into her career right now. So future star definitely seems right. She's somebody who I feel like just a little bit of I've seen of her work in NXT could make the jump to main roster. And if done right could be like an enormous star in WWE. So, interested to see what happens with her. I think she's also really solid on promos, which is not something you could say for a lot of people this early on in their time in NXT. So, good for her for being kind of good at everything. And I'm looking forward to seeing what she does next. >> Yeah, future star is always the most unpredictable category for me. I never have any idea who's gonna get the nod in this one. Because a lot of people can interpret it in a lot of ways. You interpret it as like the breakout star of the year, you're gonna interpret it as rookie of the year. If you want, again, we kind of leave that up to you to decide. I can see why Stephanie got nominated for this award in that and like she had a big year sign of thanks to you. I go to see why a lot of people didn't vote for her because she was CMLL Women's Champion already. So, like arguably like she's already beyond future star. >> I always have that trouble with this kind of category because I remember, I forget what pull it was, but there was some like big hole that had named like a future star out of a to Keshna because that was like at the year that he had come into AEW. >> Family shows, I'm going to eat you for like the best new artists on your fourth album and I'm like new. >> Yeah, like, but I got it. And to me, someone in Jada Parker's position is a future star worthy, especially a future star worthy because she isn't the very start of things. It feels a little different when it's someone who already has a well established career coming into a major promotion and having established themselves there. It's almost kind of a slap in the face, honestly, to me. I know that people don't mean it that way, but it's like, Stephanie's done a lot of starring, like she's done a lot of work. She has had her props and her flowers at this point. But I get it, not everybody's watching other promotions, they're watching the big promotions. And so when they see somebody coming in to their big promotion and their new face, to them, it's new all over again. And there's power in that. So I'm not, I don't mean to be dismissive, but I do think that Jada feels like a good choice for this. I always like when we have an indies person and we have women on the indies represented in this category because it means that someone's paying attention to what's happening on the independent scene, you know, instead of just watching who's, you know, do-ish to the major promotions. So shout out to Gabby and Maggie Lee because we know, we know, I know that we have listeners who are fans of what you've been doing all year long. And I'm excited to see more of you guys. And I feel like there's going to be no shortage of Gabby Porsa or Maggie Lee in our coverage of events coming in 2025. Yeah. Gabby's a great pick. I had her on my short list as well because I it's just one of those examples of like I've seen her name everywhere. She's like getting bigger and bigger matches on the indies, messing all over the place. That's to me the quintessential like future star nominee. Exactly. Exactly. To me, it's like, did I see your name like more and more this year? Was it like, okay, I was seeing you around occasionally in like the winter and then by like late spring, I was just like, I'm seeing you on every show. Are you getting book consistently in independence that are getting that have a pretty wide reaching fan base? Then to me that like, that's your, that's a breakout year. Yeah, I was shocked that Maya World didn't make the list because I felt like she was like the name that I was seeing all summer everywhere. And she's really, really cool and got a really great look. That's a, that's a good point. And I love these in Maya World. So I was a little surprised by that as well. And last name on my that I really thought couldn't maybe even win this whole thing. Heart of Cameron. Like, she's been taking AEW by storm lately. Maybe she'll pick it up next year if she like gets her first AEW win. But yeah, she's like, she's another person who just like ever nowhere was all of a sudden like the second coming ability K with the comedic skills and with everything else. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, who knows future star? It's a weird, it's always a weird category or at least it's always, it's hard to predict who's going to get nominated or who's going to get mentions for this one. So she might pop up next year. All right. Well, not every category is hard to predict. So let's turn it over to our next award. Honoring the broadcasters, referees, managers, authority figures and other on-screen personnel who don't resort to violence unless they have to. It's the Glitterati's own outstanding non-wrestlers. Wow. Superfan and Dave McLean's number one op, Lindsey Baker, and the only person with more Riz than the Rizler, Don Halloell. It's a harden but wise wrestling observer. I love any moment where I can pretend I'm more involved in this business than I actually am, which is why I'm so excited to present the award for outstanding performer in a non-wrestling role this year. Granted, many of our nominees have in-ringing experience and occasionally are still stepping inside the ring and maybe their experience in an outside the ring will forever trump any of my wildest projections. But we won't let that stop us from giving them the racolades. Ring announcers, color commentary, backstage interviewers, these individuals stitch together the fabric of a promotion's booking, storytelling, and wrestling personalities into a quilted cozy blanket we can wrap ourselves up in. And the nominees for outstanding performer in a non-wrestling role are beta scott, Renee puppets, Samantha Irving, Val Capone, and Ziggy Hyam. And the glitter bomb goes to four, the fifth year in a row, beta scott's awesome. A little fun fact about beta scott for me and really niche colliding of my interests. I'm starring Power is the best video series name and concept. That's a show that she has on YouTube. And what I do is interview wrestlers and they draw a little picture together. Like on canvases, like one of those like kindergarten or like my buddy and me art classes. And I think that is just inspired. Yes, I think all of like beta and like speedballs video content is just so amazing because it just shows you know them being a regular people. Beta is just so extraordinary being an announcer whether it's for new Japan, whether it's for GCW or a plethora of independent promotions. They are always amazing. Yes, we salute you, beta scott, congratulations. And with that, beta scott becomes the only person in the glitter bomb's history to win the same award five times. And not only five times, five times in a row. Yeah, I mean, like, it's hard to argue with, right? Or like, what is this like weird position of like, I would love other people to get represented as winners in the support. However, I do not want to take anything away from beta because what they are doing day to day, week to week, month to month, they are a workhorse, they are everywhere. They said about trying to establish their bona fides in commentary. And they have done it 10, 20, 100 times over. And so our listeners by and large are watching things that beta is a part of because beta is a part of a lot of things. Yeah, beta goes everywhere, does everything, and does a great job at it. So, sorry, everybody else. That said, WWE and AW won a lot of awards this year. We've already, we've already, they've won four of the awards we've presented so far. This is a category where they're really not trying. They're not putting out much of a fight. Renee Paquette is great, and she's a perennial nominee in this category. But she doesn't get really that much interesting to do, not on AW programming, maybe over on like dinner in a movie and those other shows, she's having fun. But on like dynamite and on collision and on pay-per-view, she's not doing anything particularly compelling, really. WWE, I don't mean, I can't tell you what women over there anymore. Samantha Ervin was on about this year, Mackenzie Mitchell was on about last year, both as like a thank you from voters after these women left WWE to be like, "Oh yeah, they were great. What a loss for WWE." Yeah, I mean, that is a trend that has happened now two years in a row. And I mean, we have to shout out Valcarpone, who's been such a wonderful friend of this show and does just wonderful work both in announcing and commentary and in all facets and is one of my favorite collaborators when it's Val and Veda together. I just love that team up. And I was really pleased to see people like give Ziggy her props as far as her non-wrestling role in recent months with InJoy, but considering that InJoy has only run two bigger shows in the last, since June, and that was her debut in a managerial role or general manager. I think it's what they're calling her in June. I'm not surprised that she didn't win this and I could see our listeners doubling down on their votes for her next this coming year, depending on what InJoy does with her. But again, it's just like consistently, and with a fan base that they have, Veda is untouchable in this category. It's the Puyo Del Mar effect over the QWI awards. We have the same situation with Veda. It's just impossible between Veda's actual work and the fact that we have so many hardcore Veda stands based on the work that they do in addition to wrestling, blogging, and part of stuff with their partner Mike Bailey. It's hard to argue with. It really is. Veda's got their fans, got their big, big fan base, and they exist for a reason. But we might have to institute a 10-year limit here. You're seeing a ton of harding and just let pipe to the eardrums or something? No, I was thinking more along the lines of establishing a limited amount of times a person can win this in a row and perhaps in recognition of Veda's long-standing success in this category, renaming this category in honor of them. All right, well, you know who would probably like that would be Val Capone. Who's here? Not to accept this award, but to present a different award. Val? Whether wearing a headset on commentary, standing ringside with a Mike and her trusty hand fan, interviewing people backstage, or sacrificing her body on the roller derby track, our next presenter picked up a wrestling mic in 2016 and has never looked back. Here is Val Capone. Hiya friends. Resident Lady Mark with a microphone, Val Capone here, and ding-dang do I love all things wrestling, most especially when it comes to women and marginalized wrestlers. Some of my other favorite aspects of professional wrestling, why tag team wrestling, of course. What's better than watching your favorite wrestlers go toe-to-toe with the competition than watching them beat down too or more of their rivals, or wait that precious tag from their partner or a stablemate while holding the ever important piece of rope tied to their corner's turnbuckle while dancing on the apron. If that crucial joy of the hot tag isn't the best feeling in the entire world, well, I don't know what is. Wait a minute. Yes, of course I do. Getting to share with you this year's nominees for the 2024s favorite tag team or stable. Damage control. Featuring Asuka, Dakota Kai, Io Sky, and Kyrie Sane. Spitfire, comprised of Danny Luna and Jody Threat. Team 200 kilograms, combining Chihiro Hashimoto and you. MIT manifested as Athena, Billy Starks, and Lexi Nair. Creeps, embodied by Andy Ripley and Irving West. And the glitter bomb goes to. Damage control. Featuring Asuka, Dakota Kai, Io Sky, and Kyrie Sane. I mean, seriously, my friends. They've been nominated twice and this is their first year winning. How rad is that? Oh, congratulations. You brutal brutal mega babes. Congratulations. We caught from year one. We've called this award favorite tag team or stable. We didn't want to not to limit it to people. You want to nominate fatal influence. You want to nominate Queen's Quest, Oweto Tai, any of these larger groups that feature women prevalently. You could do that. And yet it took to year six. This is the first time ever that a stable has won the award over a traditional duo. I cannot believe that this is the first year that has happened because to me, it's just like math, right? It's just like a numbers game. How could it? How is it that we've had tag teams win this over and over again? When you have the power of multiple people, multiple multiple people, not just two, four, four people. Yeah, so damage control. Again, this is such a fascinating category for your tag team because women's wrestling, women's tag team wrestling in America, especially. This is not treated like anything. They get less respect than WNBA. Even companies with tag championships, we talk about TNA all the time. It's always just like one team and then two singles wrestlers that they slapped together for like a three-month feud. There's no tag teams, really, no long-standing teams or groups that really stick around and stick together. So damage control, this is a testament to them. They formed in 2022. They've been nominated every year since and they are the only team to ever get three nominations in this category and now they finally win it on their third year. The fact that they are still together after so many years, I mean, in WWE who just love to like build a team up for six months only to rip them apart, I think it's like a mirror. It's nothing sort of a miracle, honestly. So yeah, just by that alone, they deserve to win this. They're also like, we're talking about, well, okay, Dakota Kai, like, no disrespect words, okay? I will say that she is a very good wrestler and what she is doing with damage control is fantastic. But then we have Asuka, EO, and Kairi, three of some of the greatest women's wrestlers ever, especially working today. Like how are you not going, like, there's, you can't mess with us, like it's like looking at on paper, I'm sometimes still just startled. Yeah, the fact that they were nominated the last two years but didn't win, finally won this year, clearly proves one thing, that Bayley was the deadweight, once they cut Bayley out, then they finally won the award. Aw, aw, that's one way to look at it. In terms of our other nominees, Spitfire, we're reigning TNA team champions in a two-team division, so congrats to them. They have, I'll give Danny, Luna, and Joey Fred this. They've come together as a team, they've got a name, I can't remember if they have matching, like, tandem moves or not, I think they're working on that. I'd love to see any team stick together longer than one year, so we'll see if Spitfire is still eligible this time next year, because MK Ultra weren't this year, and they won last year. Also, some other real interesting team 200 kilograms from over in TJPW. I girl you! Yeah, creeps from the Indies, very loved seeing that only one team from the Indies on the list this year, which again is kind of shocking considering this award has been one in the past by Kings of the District and Borsie, and some other sea stars, some other independent teams, so... Well, but shout out to creeps, it's wonderful to have them in their first nomination, hopefully not last. And then, MIT, Minions in Training, Athena, Billy Starks, and no longer Lexi Nair, but up until a couple weeks ago Lexi Nair was part of this group, I can't talk enough about how I don't care about the storyline anymore and hate it. I just want to go away. I'm so bored of it, and then I don't think it's doing Billy or Athena any wonders anymore. I would have hated to hear that this time last year, and now I'm like, I'm just over it. Like, there hasn't been any meaningful moves with it, and they have a match coming up. Athena, Billy, they had a match. Yeah, they had a match. Athena, Peter, again, now they're still friends, and they're back together again. Okay, so... So nothing has changed in the last 12 months. No, we gotta do something here. We gotta do something. Athena is a wonderful, wonderful women's champion. I'm not gonna argue with that. She is your ace in ROH that needs those names, but anyone's title reign is gonna get stale if you keep doing this, if the only time that it's ever even remotely interesting is if they're feuding with their with their underling, with their protege, and then continually that story returns to the same starting place, come on, guys, new year, new resolution, resolution for 2025, do something different, do anything different, turn someone. I will say this before we move on, damage control, pick up the collective win, Dakota, EO, Kyrie, and Oscar. Oscar and Kyrie, as the Kabuki warriors, won this award in 2019, our very first year. So as of now, Oscar and Kyrie saying, are the only two-time winners in favor team. Yeah, and who knows? You keep damage control together for another year. This just might become their category to lose. To me, this is a longevity award. This is like eight women's wrestling, especially. If you've got a women's tag team that exists longer than a year, and you're anywhere, you will likely get nominated for this award. He is the only person to defeat Matt Cardona, Rina Yamashashita, beat ball Mike Bailey, Joey Janela, and Sean Ross Sapp in the past six months. Again, it's Effie. Well, I have been told by the grit and glitter staff that I did agree to do a song that references everyone in the match of the year. So without further ado, the wonderful host of the 2024 glitter bomb presents, well, a song that I worked really hard on. It's about the matches of the year. Tony Storm is from the past. Will she beat Mariah Mae? Mayou Iwatani and Sarri had a wonder day to Leon Sarri. She must be very good to be twice, but Doug Sheik and Vipris made love in the night that Torey Us me me. Oh, will it be lean across? We don't know. We won't know the winner until it's on now. They are a writer for Out Sports, the host of our sister podcast, LGBT in the ring, and the curator of the QWI 200. And no, they didn't cheat to help us win this year, presenting match of the year. They are Brian Bell. Hello, lovelies, always a treat to be invited back to present any category of the glitter bombs, but this time around, it's very special because I have the privilege of sharing all of the nominees for match of the year. Match of the year, always a hotly contested category, no matter what wrestling awards show you are on. And especially for this year, it felt like 2024 was one of the strongest years to date for women's wrestling all around the world. And I believe our nominees for the glitter bomb for this year for match of the year definitely reflect. So without any further preamble, let's just run through the nominees for the 2024 glitter bomb for match of the year. The nominees are Tony Storm versus Mariah May from AW All In, Mayui Watani versus Sarri from Stardom All-Star Grand Kingdom, Julia versus Sarri from Merry Gold Summer Destiny, Dark Chic versus Vipress from Hood Slam FTF Mountain, and Notorious Mimi versus Lena Cross from Bell to Bell, saved by the Bell. And the glitter bomb goes to Tony Storm versus Mariah May. Another unpredictable category for me, man, my match of the year was well in a stat lander. Didn't even make the ballot. That's how you know it's been a good year for women's wrestling. Tony Storm, Mariah May, All In, I mean, it was kind of the perfect culmination, right? We had this epic storyline in AW, one of the most memorable women's storylines in the history of AW. And not only does it like culminate on a big stage, culminate on the biggest stage around, Wembley Stadium, right? And the match itself delivers. Yeah, I mean, agreed. I could quibble about this. I could say that they're ones I preferred, but it's really hard to argue. This was, you know, this was a dynamite match after a fantastic storyline build. It's really, yeah, it's hard to question. Unlike some of the other ones that are nominated, I'm not saying anything against these ones. I'm saying unlike some of the other ones that are nominated on this list, this one probably had like, well, maybe second in the dark sheet versus Vipers from hood slam FTF Mountain, because that storyline is real deep and layered as what slam storylines tend to be. But yeah, this wasn't just simply like for a championship. This wasn't just simply like a really great match that happened. This was a match that told multiple levels of story. And just in general, very cool that, yeah, we get to talk about like two of the top matches of year being queer storylines. Yeah, one of which is in a major company, a billion dollar company. And unquestionably queer, for those of you who have been resistant to this, like what, what do you need? Sui on the ballot twice this year. Julia in Marigold, Mayu in Stardom, Sui is one of the best wrestlers on the planet going today. She deserves all the credit in the world. She can Vipers, great storyline, great match, love that they were able to crack into the top here alongside. This is notoriously a little bit of a tough category for like the independence. Just because more people are watching the big pay-per-views from the big two and the big Joshi shows. So any independent match making it on the ballot is a huge sign of respect to them. Same for leaning across, and it towards me, belt to bell, even less visibility than hood slam. There are only six, eight months in to their existence. So Lina and Mimi getting on the ballot here as well is a huge testament to them. And we made history here because this is the first time ever that AEW has taken home match of the year. Maybe we are finally turned to corner. No. We have it. We have not turned a corner with AEW at large. We have, we are giving them credit for one really big thing that they have done really well this year. I need to stress this. Everything else has been a problem. Well, it's a baby steps because last year they weren't nominated at all. That's true. They take home match of the year. Conversely, last year WWE had three matches in this category. This year they have none. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. I mean, and fair because the other thing, if you're looking at the list, the matches on this list, what are going to be the top WWE contenders on there? Yeah, it's that's we got one award left. So we can talk about the regular bombs a little bit at an overall at this moment in time. It's fascinating to me that so AEW takes home match of the year best heel best babyface. WWE takes home take team future star and biggest debut. So it feels like a lot biggest debut and future star kind of go hand in hand. That's like a lot of our voters saying that they are feeling very good about the future of WWE about what NXT has coming about who they have lined up next. The fact that they don't have any for match of the year means that I don't know maybe they need that future to start soon. Overall, six years of the glitter bombs match of the year WWE has won three times AEW once, TNA once, and enjoy wrestling once. Well, one of our Joshi promotions is going to get at one of these years. And once again, the founder of the glitter bombs and the creators of grit and glitter Harley and M. Every year with the glitter bombs, we have 10 categories voted on by our listeners nine their 10th polls one that rotates this year. We are thrilled to introduce a brand new 11th category for the first time ever recalling it our flowers award and it is not voted on by fans. This one is chosen by me and the glitter Roddy and I say that as if there was like a long discussion or debate about it and it wasn't it was super obvious it was when either surreal announced back in June that she was vacating the enjoyer championship and stepping away from the ring possibly forever. We knew that we needed to dedicate this year's glitter bombs in the rest of this year to making sure that she knew and knows how important her influence has been and how much she has meant to us into professional wrestling as a whole. So yes, we created this award for you. We were not going to do this award. You you drove us to create the flowers award to start the grit and glitter holla fame here in our sixth year. This will be returning next year with another new inductee. But for now, you just realize the inaugural member of the G&G holla fame in a class all her own as she always has been. Yeah, it's hard to say anything that we haven't said before about Edie, but we just really want to thank her for what she has meant to wrestling and what she has meant to our show. And it has been just a it has been a privilege for me as a fan to see her go from the first year or two of her in-ring time to a person who will be sorely missed in the wrestling landscape having shaped it's so profoundly. So this category is because of you, Edie, and we will continue to honor what you have accomplished and to wait for all the things that you will accomplish in the future. I like to believe that most wrestlers don't leave wrestling forever. And I don't know if that'll be the case for you, but we want to appreciate you regardless and send love and send our flowers to you wherever you are. And whatever you whatever your plans are for the coming year, we are with you in spirit and our listenership is 100% in line with that as well. No one has won more glitter bombs in history than you this surreal. Best ring entrance, favorite look or gear, match of the year, three time back to back to back winner for favorite wrestler. Still raining from last year, favorite wrestler. Not only has she won more awards than anyone, she's been a multi-time guest on this show. She designed our current logos that you see on her social media and she's been a good friend and a great supporter behind the scenes. Edie has meant so much to us. We could talk for two and a half hours about the legacy of you. Oh wait, we already did. Yeah, we did that two weeks ago with our shake. So go listen to that episode if you haven't listened to it yet and give her the proper credit by listening through Harley's exhaustive, wonderful research about her life and career. We have covered this, we have talked about it. That episode stands on its own. Yeah, so for a change, let's let some other people talk about the legacy and the influence of Edie's surreal. When I was training students to be wrestlers, at the end of class, we'd take a group photo to sort of a record of attendance. And you know, who's in just about every one of those photos is Edie's surreal. Edie's the person I feel most took to heart the things I find important about being a professional wrestler. I see more of Hollow Wicked in Edie's surreal than any other wrestler I've helped train. And on the other hand, she's so unlike me and her willingness to speak completely different than everyone else. There's no other Edie's surreal. There isn't some cheap knockoff, there's just her. I'm Edie Edith at the very beginning of her wrestling journey, at least as a recurring character. And she was awesome, always willing to learn, always doing her best, always taking feedback. And I could not have been paired up with a better person than Edie's surreal. I learned so much from Edith about gender evolution, gender fluidity. And when I grew up in Central Pennsylvania in the 1980s, there wasn't a lot of that around. And I as a, you know, 30-something year old white male did not have all the tools ingrained in me. But I learned so much from Edith and watching the way that she handled herself with grace and dignity. And I'm sure there were awful things being said, but Edith showed up to work at Chikara and elsewhere every day with a smile on her face. So I have been a long advocate of her personality, her wrestling skill. And I am honored and flattered to speak her praises anytime I am asked, but especially today. I am so, so proud of you. It has been an honor to call you, my friend, and has just been really incredible to get to come up with you for our whole careers, to be training with you, and then watch you grow from still life with apricots and pears into Edith's surreal, this multi-time champion who has been so inspirational to the community that she has built herself around. I love Edith's surreal. I think Edith's surreal is one of the most necessary professional wrestlers that have ever existed. I think that she's a necessary disruptor to the establishment. And I think that she created a blueprint and a path for success for many wrestlers to follow her lead. I think she represents what the future of wrestling looks like, which is an entire new way to present your personhood and your character through necessary evolution, to present your persona in a very intentional and detailed oriented way, working with someone who understands their role has been a pleasure. I have long been an evangelist for Edith's surreal. I feel like the first time I saw her step in a ring, I just was so drawn to her energy and her artistry and the stories that she was really good at telling. I first met Edith somewhere years ago at a camp leapfrog show. We had a European rounds match, just an absolutely technical masterclass. I really enjoyed that match. When I first met Edith, my first impression of her was someone that had all the talent in the world but didn't know who she was. And over the next few years, I saw her blossom from still life with apricots and pears to Edith's surreal and not just becoming a fantastic wrestler, not just becoming a fantastic promo but becoming a legitimate star in independent wrestling and an inspiration to people all across the country, someone that connected with so many different fans all across this country with, like I said, her in ring ability, the promo, the aesthetic, like no one in professional wrestling is like Edith's surreal. Edith's surreal is a truly special performer, not because of her presentation, her creative choices, her aesthetic, all of which are amazing but because of her authenticity. Ever since I've known her, she has pushed and pushed and pushed to find the truest aspects of herself and her character and her audience and make the connection between all three. She's such an inspiration artistically, personally, professionally. It's always been a huge inspiration either against you or with you to be a part of the ring with you. Thank you for always making us laugh and showing your creative side, really pushing us to our limit and really pushing the dynamic of professional wrestling for the queer community. As I do in my evangelism of getting people into professional wrestling, she constantly was somebody who was the entry point, right? Like I could bring my friends to a show and almost always people would be talking about Edith's surreal and once you saw her, you wanted to bring her flowers up the next show. Truly just like there was this aspect to her performance that always drew people in. First, I enjoyed her as a fan, of course, but then in getting to actually work with Edith at enjoy. I was constantly impressed by her professionalism and her dedication to telling really good stories and pushing things really far and not being afraid to try insane things in order to convey these stories and get these motions out of people. We had the honor of having a singles match on the second night of King of Trios, the final King of Trios, and I don't think it's out of bounds to say that was the best match of the weekend. I really want Edith to know that I taught a great deal about our Russian death match that we had. It was one of the really fun memories of 2021 and my return from Japan to America. It was really fun, you know, took me off a roof and doing like the really awesome cinematic match that we did. But most importantly, I want to mention that we talked about chicken nuggets in the match and you can hear it in the audio and that is still the funniest thing to me and I never said laughing about it. I tell people about it all the time. I truly feel like we were all so lucky to have had Edith be a star as long as she was. She truly was such a bright light as champion of enjoy wrestling, her match with Ziggy and Edith. The hair versus mask match is like still one of my favorite matches of all time. She in so many ways is the superhero people needed. Specifically, if we think about the pandemic, I think we really wanted someone to root for and I think she was the perfect person at the time and she took that responsibility super seriously and gave her all and had tremendous performances and captivated the hearts and the minds of not only her community, but the wrestling community at large and really as in terms of visibility was up there with the major names that get talked about in every conversation. I love her debates and I'm so, so happy whenever I see fans of Edith because I know what that connection is like and how important she is to them. So proud of Edith, so happy for her and happy to call her a friend. I understand that Edith has moved on to another world that is not so much in the ring wrestling which you know for what it's worth is not the worst idea you've ever heard. You only get one brain and Edith's is too great to be dismissed. We need her brain and other things specifically her incredible creative design, artistic design, just so so so talented. Edith has so many talents and wrestling was only one of them so while I am sad not to see her in the ring anytime soon perhaps I am excited to see what she can do for the world with her endless and boundless talents. The professional wrestling world misses Edith as well. If Edith's real never has another match again I just want you to know that you left a long lasting legacy not just on myself but tons of people around the country and you should be very very proud of that. Once again just congratulations Edith and thank you for all the amazing memories we have together and maybe we'll make some in the future. I'm just so grateful for the time that we had with Edith in the ring and I'm really proud of her for putting herself first prioritizing her health and taking care of her. I look forward to her long and beautiful post-career life of joy and good health and I'm so grateful for every minute that we got to watch her in that ring so thank you so much Edith. I hope you know how loved you are and that you are continually just showered in all of the flowers that you deserve. Edith has been a great influence on professional wrestling and people around her and I just think that there's very few people who are more deserving of this induction than Edith. So be congratulations and love you. I hope I get to see you again soon. One of the things that Edith's real would hate for people to know is that she's so kind and generous and loving and a good sister. I'm in wrestling if you're a good sister that goes a long way. I think her legacy just means that she knew what she was doing. Her eye was on the prize and she executed flawlessly and we are indebted to her forever. I think the potential she has is unlimited and if she really is calling in a day it's a loss for wrestling because I think she could have done anything. I know better. I know a wrestler isn't actually done until they're in a pine box six feet under the dirt so Edith whenever you're ready you owe me a match. You are one of my best friends. You are a silly little goof and I love you. You are inspirational and iconic and one of the most creative people I've ever known and I'm very proud of everything that you've done. You are pretty darn cool so congratulations and I love you. We love you. Smooches. I am yeah just really privileged to call you my friend and very very happy for you that you are the first Hall of favor in the Great and Glitter Hall of Fame. That's amazing. I love you so much. Hey there this is Kimberly and man the things I can say about Edith's surreal. I remember when you first started wrestling. I even remember one of the times when you had me stay at your house because I needed a place to stay between shows. You are always just so willing to help and do whatever it takes to see what you have blossomed into and the amazing woman you have become. I know you've said in the past that I inspired you back in the day when I was still running the circuit but girl you inspire me now and you've taken the torch that some of us before you lit and you're running with it and I can't wait to see the amazing things that you continue to do. This is so deserved and I am so happy for you girl. I love you. Thank you to Hall of Wicket, Logan Easton-Luru, Price Remsberg, Shea McCoy, Billy Dixon, Jim Fair, Cheeseburger, Erkaly, Calvin Couture, Tyler Klein, Masha Samovich, Weber Hatfield, and Kimberly. Once again welcome back to the show the ephemeral queen Edith's surreal. Hi thank you for having me welcome welcome back to the show hello Edith. Thank you hi. I feel like I need to start almost by almost by apologizing because I know that you get really embarrassed when people praise you and talk you up and we just hit you with the 15 minutes of your friends and peers gushing about how incredible you are and that can't have been easy for you. No yeah that was overwhelming but I'm so touched by it and it's um you know to hear such kind things from you know my trainers and my peers and all these people that I look up to and all that just um it was very overwhelming and I'm so touched by the by all of it so thank you for putting it together and thank you for this this honor and this flowers award. Yeah we've we've talked to Nausea about the importance that you've had especially in our sphere of the world in the the enjoy best thing sphere in the the world of like for us especially Billy Dixon talked a little bit about it during his thing but about how he called you the superhero that we needed especially during COVID and felt that way for like coming out of COVID so much of grit and glitter was talking about which was his gore and Paris is bumping and enjoy and can't leapfrog and all these promotions where you're really the heart and soul of so many of them so you know your announcement June was depth-stating for almost a step is staying for us as it was for you I'm sure I'm sure much worth you. Yeah it's um it's hard but yeah I don't know what what the future has but I'm happy with the work that that I put in in my career and what I accomplished and listening to your episode with dark chic about the life of Venus to real you know it's it's nice to hear I don't know it encapsulated like that um and to hear like my intent was understood you know like as an artist in the performer you're not always sure that all the thought that you put into it gets understood or gets comprehended so it was nice to hear that. It's been about six months now since you stepped away from the ring is is wrestling still a sore spot for you are you able to go to shows to watch wrestling at home without feeling like the bus is passed to buy? Yes it no I mean it was really hard to watch it after I got hurt and had to step away but I'm involved with labor of love wrestling here in Philadelphia I um you know helped Billy Avery with some things there and I go to the shows when I can and try to help out where I can there and you know I'm in touch with like all of my friends um so I try to catch them when they're doing something exciting you know I always try to watch Willow and Will Areuda when they're on by TV I'm still like blown away seeing them on my TV and yeah I mean I I'm just starting to like watch it regularly again I was pretty pretty disconnected from the rest of the wrestling world other than you know my my friends and stuff like that but yeah I'm starting to get back into it but yeah it's still a little tough but you know watching again it reminds me of what I love to validate and it's kind of exciting to watch as a fan and to not have to like you know for so long I was just anytime I watch wrestling it's just you're just seeing the nuts and bolts of the performance and now I'm since I'm a little farther from it right now it's I can watch it as a fan again which is fun without having to get into details your personal life life away from the ring life life away from the mask everything is great you're you're doing good you're happy everything's are things going well yeah yeah outside you know I got married this past summer and you know to my beautiful wife and you know she supported me for a large part of my wrestling career and you know drove with me to shows and helped sell my merch so wonderful to have weekends together and spend time with our beautiful family and you know I have a really fulfilling job obviously in the art world so you know my life is pretty fulfilled outside of the ring you know I do miss performing and I miss that creative outlet and I miss making merch and all that stuff but you know I'm I'm doing pretty well and Kevin the dog thriving yeah okay Kevin's doing great okay that's the most important thing have you received a lot of messages since you know announcing your retirement or your you know prolonged absence from the ring have you been receiving the appropriate amount of well-intentioned harassment from the border I don't know what the appropriate amount is but yeah I mean like you know I first kind of made that announcement I got pretty overwhelmed with comments and messages and stuff like that so that was nice and felt good but you know that stuff kind of fades away you know with wrestling you were performing every weekend and getting this response from the audience after the match and during the match and then you know the next couple days after that it's all the social media buzz and then you do it over over again the next weekend and you know after I made my announcement like that all kind of faded away which is you know hard but you know hearing the episode you guys did on me and you know obviously all the comments from my peers and stuff like that it's really it felt really wonderful because I you know I missed that feeling that was the most important part for us was just to make sure that like like it's crystal clear that you know that you created a legacy and that if this is it and you never step forward in a way again all of us will remember you all of us will like we'll go back and continue to watch those matches I still like we did our live and that's an episode and I said during the episode like man I really want to show this Soviet death match to like my friends who aren't interested because I think they would love it and I'm still probably gonna do that in the next month or two thank you yeah that was that was fun yeah I'm glad stuff like that can live on and I mean what I remember most about like matches like that was just how much fun it was planning that ridiculous match was super fun and I think Masha told the story how I was just making jokes throughout the whole thing you know I was we're both bleeding in the ring in the snow and hypothermia and whatever and I'm making jokes because off camera like our chicken fingers are getting delivered by like the pizza delivery person and like that's that's why I remember most about that well thank you again thank you for being such a good big supporter and a friend of this show for coming on so many times or hosting the village in Kimberly which was in itself like an hour and a half two hours of your time I mean thank you I mean thank you for supporting me and saying so many nice things about me and supporting me throughout my career it means so much to me so thank you yeah you're welcome back here anytime I'm sure we will harass you in the future if we think of a topic that you'd be an expert guest to discuss anytime anytime you you can run but you can't hide from us girl I'm sorry number now like you became a friend of us you are stuck with us so you can retire all you want but we are not going to let you go oh no oh no okay that's great just getting more of our respectable boundaries for your fans who want to continue to keep taps on you and see like what you're doing what you're up to blue sky maybe the best option right now I guess I'm kind of like that was one of the blessings of stepping away as I got to finally break my social media addiction you know I don't really have I deleted my Twitter because it's terrible but yeah blue sky I'd eat a surreal still on Instagram once in a while I don't really post I just share some things but still get DMs and stuff like that so those are probably the two best places and you know my website still up I still have a little bit of merch and stuff like that yeah go by listeners go by the merch by all the merch she doesn't want it anymore it's taking up space yeah I mean it's it's beautiful oh thank I made a mistake of buying like a thousand stickers each and then years ago I got like carpenters pencils with still life with apricots and pears on them and I think I got a bulk order of like 500 so if you want you know a carpenter's pencil which is like a flat pencil that doesn't roll off the roof they're very handy if you're working on like um you know non-flat surfaces and they're orange and they say still life with apricots and pears they still have like 499 of them available donate them to a school and these kids being like what oh my god that's a great idea okay all right the puzzles are no longer available creating a whole new generation of chakara fans who are like what is this when they when they google it I love it this is big viral marketing we really live for yes all right we have made it to the end of the night that was a tearjerker but the show must go on is surreal the inaugural member of the grid and glitter hall of fame edy is as we said many times three-time winner in the category of favorite wrestler in fact five years of the glitter bombs only two women have ever won this award the first two years eos guy won it the last three years eda surreal won it and so we are set to make history here our final category of the evening 2024 glitter bomb for favorite wrestler again no restrictions no rules no guidance from us to our voters we said you could vote for whoever you want edy stepped away from the ring in june but she wrestled for five and a half months there at the start of the year if you wanted to vote for her you could absolutely if you've decided that she's retired and therefore ineligible that's your choice i didn't say i hey you're putting words in my mouth i didn't say that so i was very excited and fascinated to see how this result would turn out what would happen would edy take it for the fourth year and a go would eo make a big comeback she won favorite take team because she won favorite wrestler again as well or would somebody new wins the award for the first time in four years these are our questions go into favorite wrestler the nominees for favorite wrestler are you surreal dark chic will and i can gale tony storm and masha samar bitch and the winner of the 2024 glitter bomb for favorite wrestler is will nine gale hey all right a shocking upset our favorite everyone's favorite baby face now your favorite overall wrestler which you know like we've been watching willow for a long time now we've been watching her in independent promotions as a tag team member on the rise making a huge impact in a w with only like you know before she was even signed and then in just a short time becoming one of their dominant players in their women's division has she always gotten the attention she deserves no but will has also really been fantastic and making the most of the spotlight she's been given and making people pay attention regardless of how much time on screen they give her she has that impact she has made everything that she's been a part of in a w and elsewhere bigger and more important because of her presence there she's the perfect balance we've talked about this before she's got fans on the indies she's got fans who only watch a w she's got like kids who love her she's got adults who love her she's got straight fans love her queer fans love her you know she she crosses all the divides everybody my father is a 60 what years at 2024 he's a 64 year old man who's been watching wrestling his whole life loves will think she's great so yeah i i was honestly i would have been okay with any of these women picking taking home the the spot dark chic is perennial nominee in this category tony and masha doing great work a lot of people but love them obviously rightfully so but willen and gail is my favorite wrestler i will say that my favorite rest are going today and so i thank you thank you voters for making the right decision now as you can tell by the results here willen and gail looks popular restaurant at w according to our ballot dark chic number one name in the indies masha number one is tna wb no nominees in this category despite winning all these other awards this year favorite tatement no nominees here you have to go down the most popular deputy wrestler in among our voters was rok sam for as who came in at 17th place that kind of that that that movie like wow people love rok sam more than anybody else in wb but they love 16 other women from different companies more than anybody into it really that's that's really remarkable i think it's again we don't pretend that we have the most mainstream of wrestling fans listening to our show i think it again and again every year one of my favorite aspects of the glitter bombs is that i get to know what you all are watching this year i don't know we've got some new listeners who are into wwe or some of you guys are just like you're in that like you you you're into what paul sell it and you're you're all in now on wwe again it's because we've seen more votes for wwe talent overall in this ballot that we've seen in previous years but i just i like i like knowing what's important to you all out there i like knowing that we picked up more people who are watching west coast promotions and promotions that we're not as familiar with i'm loving to see all like the continued inclusion of joshi promotions on our ballot i know that you are all listening and watching i know that you're all watching following those promotions out there as well so like yeah my favorite part of the glitter bombs is i finally like every year it's my check-in it's our check-in to find out like what is the most important wrestling that's happened to you this year to our listeners not you know not the listeners of tights and fights or or marty's era or like any number of podcasts that have exponentially more listeners than we do but in our tiny little pocket we get to find out every year what you valued who you were watching what promotions and matches and events were the most important to you and that is my favorite aspect of these awards because we do this for you we we like what you like and we want to represent what you like out there so you're telling us in these ballots and we get to shout it out and they we could very well have a huge 2025 for willow because yes she's the best babyface going right now maria me is the best heel they're in the same company and if willow wins this four-way on sunday at vessel dynasty she'll earn a shot at maria me's championship yeah and it would make a lot of sense for both of them to have some to have a fresh feud and this would work really really well there's nothing like holding willow back as far as other titles to be concerned about so this is a fantastic way to to give maria and willow a big new thing to bounce off of not only has willow made history when your favorite wrestler is only the third woman ever in six years but with this win I said before that it is surreal it was the most winningest person in glitter bomb history we are pronasterous on that now willow has tied edie with an all-time total of six glitter bombs oh man all right well they're followed by vada scott and yo sky at five each and oscar at four okay well maybe we can't live in vada's term so that they can like catch up at least that is it that is the end of our show please don't forget your purses and your wallets on your way out thank you so much for coming tip the door man this was the glitter bombs this is grit and glitter we do a weekly podcast dedicated to the power dedicated to the power of women's i could do it i could do it they're gonna cry this time we do this podcast every fucking week every tuesday six a.m. wherever you get your podcast there's a new episode of grit and glitter usually it's me and m with our team of correspondence known as the glitter body sometimes we have other guests from other shows joining us like brian balfour sibling podcast lgp hearing in the ring or other people we interview wrestlers referees gear makers promoters authors filmmakers we do deep dives in the lives and careers of wrestlers we cover weekly promotions as they happen we go in and we seek out wrestling from vast corners of the globe we do game shows we do like all sorts of crazy shit whatever the hell we want because we would be holding to no one we have no ads we have no sponsors we have no corporate backing we do this every week out of the love of our heart out of the love of women's professional wrestling we've been doing this for over five years we're gonna do it for another five years because nobody is gonna stop me from doing that i love professional wrestling i love women's wrestling i love m fear i love my team i love that we get people like effy and edus surreal and sienna and val and all these other people that come on board and do these things and help us end this way i love that we got halo wicked and price remsber descendant recordings for us for our little show if what we do makes a difference in anybody's life if it entertains you if it makes edus surreal feel a little bit more better and special about her career and her place in wrestling and make it feel like she's not losing something by stepping away from the ring that the last six years of her career meant something then good because it did it meant something to me at the very least all of this means something to me i love this podcast i love all of you people from making this session part part of my life i cannot say enough how much it means you express it so well but you don't even need to because the work speaks for itself harley and i want to thank all the listeners i want to thank everybody who's been a part of this show in 2024 and everyone who will be a part of this show in 2025 but most importantly more than anyone i want to thank harley vasquez for the work that he does on this show we all contribute in our own ways some of us more than others but nobody does the work on this show that harley does so when you are listening to living legends and you are remarking at how beautifully researched it is when you are when you are enjoying one of our novelty episodes with a game show or experimental twist that is harley those are harley's ideas we all do what we can to keep up with his brilliance and with his drive but if you are listening to this episode itself and you are thinking wow what a moving incredible episode is because harley put his heart and god damn soul into this work so every time you listen to an episode of our show please know that what you are listening to is harley's love letter to you the wrestling fans the wrestlers the wrestling that he loves the wrestling that we all want to continue to support day after day after day with this show harley thank you for making me a part of this work you are incredible and i love having worked with you and getting to look to another year of working with you you can find us on blue sky instagram or patreon at grit glitter pod we'll be back next week with our news resolutions and a look ahead to 2025 thank you and good night you [BLANK_AUDIO]
