There were six women’s matches across AEW’s YouTube shows: Four on Dark Elevation, Two on Dark. Three of these matches absolutely delighted me, though I wouldn’t say any of those were the best or even second best matches of the six.
Let’s get into it…
Dark Elevation-Mar 27
This match was wild. On the one hand it had some of the sloppiest sequences I’ve ever seen in an AEW match. But I kinda didn’t fucking care because the action was so fun and the crowd was so hot that it was impossible not to enjoy it immensely. I’m not going to go into those spots but I’d feel dishonest if I at least didn’t say I noticed them.
Marina shows off some new stuff, although including a Gator Roll and then some kind of Pumphandle Suplex that got a good POP from the crowd. There’s so many little things that Marina does that I think a lot of fans miss. She has her opponent on all fours and she hooks her leg around an arm and pulls it back to do a submission. She has an opponent in a standing arm bar and then reaches down to their outside ankle to simultaneously trip them and get them on their back.
Nyla is in rare form in this match, working with the crowd and being hilarious. This audience really loves her, pretty much popping for everything she’s doing. Her and Marina setup Nyla’s flying knee strike on a hung up opponent. I thought this was the best version I’ve seen of this particularly because with Marina putting the opponent on the top rope, Nyla can immediately leap off the turnbuckle and Hale really bumps on this one.
A couple spots that highlight the end is the Hale sisters double clotheslining Nyla over the top rope but the finish is Marina Shafir doing a particularly brutal looking submission, absolutely stretching this young woman.
Very very fun match.
Winner: Nyla & Shafir (4:06)
It’s Willow motherfuckers!!! Maggie Lee looks very tall and svelte. It makes for a matchup where Willow is just able to overpower at will and her absolute most jovial. Willow explodes Lee with a Pounce, crushes her with a Cannon Ball, and then finishes her off with the Babe Bomb.
It wasn’t a competitive match but it’s always fun to watch a wrestler who has fun offence just Get All Her Shit In™. This went exactly how it should have and it was all the more fun for it.
Winner: Willow (1:57)
Holy shit was this whole match/segment ever fun. I love Dark Elevation for the same reason I love Iron Man Matches: You’re going to see match endings you don’t normally see. The sanctity of a match on Dynamite or PPV seems to sacred to have one like this but it was perfect for what it was. Tootie catches Athena off guard, blitzing her with a Shot Gun Dropkick but soon after Athena drops Lynn with one of her patented forearm strikes and completely knocks her out. Athena is hilarious. You should watch this match just because it’s not like anything I’ve ever seen.
Winner: Athena (1:10)
And our mainnnn event! Diamante has been putting in THE WORK! She looks FIT! Meanwhile, omg, it’s Dark Riho! She has black gear!
Dimante takes early control, slamming Riho’s head to the mat after she was celebrating matrixing out of a pin. Riho fights off Diamante from the top rope and delivers a diving stomp followed by a Feigning Tiger Kick (or 6-1-9 for my normie homies).
Vicious corkscrew by Diamante for two. Trio of German Suplexes is interrupted by Riho but Diamante turns that into a pin attempt, getting 2.9. Riho wins with her patented roll-up pin.
It was a solid match by two good wrestlers, not much else to report.
Winner: Riho (4:01)
Dark-Mar 28
Hey! Here we go! Queen Aminata with her own tron and music! She takes on enhancement talent slayer Skye Blue.
A very luchadora style offence to start this match. Queen has this great facial expression where she goes from warm smile to unimpressed that pops me. She delivers a baseball slide kick to Skye’s face that gets a great reaction and then snap suplexes her on the floor.
Skye Blue comes back with a Face Buster on the apron and then a diving cross body from the top rope to Aminata on the floor and then hits another in the ring for two.
Both women crack each other with forearms. Skye’s spinning enziguri spot. HUGE Air Raid Crash from Queen but she gets two. Skye Blue ends up winning this with Skye Fall. I was looking to see if she’d use the same Jaded-like setup she did on Lady Frost in a recent ROH match but she did not. I’d like to see her do that more as it makes the move feel harder to escape.
Winner: Skye Blue (6:11)
Ah Marina Shafir. She’s had a great March! She takes on Steph De Lander (26, 5y in-ring, 119 matches), who MY LORD IS SHE A UNIT! 5’11”, 187 Lbs. according to CageMatch and I believe it because Marina’s not a small woman. De Lander’s power is immediately put over as she’s able to throw Shafir backwards off the lock up. But we get this just *chef’s kiss* great spot where Marina quickly rolls out of the throw, looks up at Steph who walks into frame but you can’t even see her head she’s so tall. And then she bends down to taunt Marina.
They look up again but this time Marina attacks the base with inside kicks, bringing Steph to the mat. She gator rolls De Lander but De Lander ain’t no bitch and she gets an opportunity to inflict her power game on Shafir with a big clothesline, snake eyes and big boot.
It’s Shafir’s technical prowess, working the base and her nastiness once the match is brought to the match that puts her back in the driver’s seat. The two exchange blows but Shafir, now having the measure of De Lander’s big boot this time is able to duck it and turn it into a standing Greedy Submission.
Winner: Marina Shafir (3:22)
Jon Moxley on a recent The Sessions with his wife Renee Paquette talks about doing the perfect 3-minute match. If he’s found it, this looks like it was taken right out of that boiler plate.
