Allysin Kay vs Willow Nightingale

Caprice Coleman mentions that this match could be considered a #1 Contenders Match for the ROH Women’s Title. Allysin Kay is someone we’ve seen once in AEW when she fought Serena Deeb on the Full Gear 2020 Buy-In for the NWA World Women’s Championship. She’s a veteran with over 13 years in the business. This match was on the ROH Death Before Dishonor “Zero Hour” (essentially their “Buy-In”).

Willow Nightingale comes out to a HUGE POP(!) from this ROH crowd.

Kimur-Again?

Allysin goes for a Kimura but Willow reverses this by one hand scoop slamming Allysin Kay. This would be one of the big themes of the match as Allysin defeated Willow 11 months earlier in the ROH Women’s Championship Tournament with the Kimura. Willow hits a snap mare and follows up with a running diving crossbody for two. Kay tries to Irish whip Nightingale into the ropes but she cartwheels out of it and then hits an Enziguri.

We’d get a great misdirect when Kay would whip Willow into the corner, Willow went to slip to the apron between the ropes but Allysin caught her by the hair and gave Willow a rope assisted neck breaker.

Wife guys

Chop battle ensues in the corner leading to Kay burying Nightingale with a Lariat for two. Crowd starts rallying behind Willow as Ian Riccaboni and Caprice Coleman shoutout to their wives who they both claim have Willow Nightingale as their wives favourite wrestlers.

Navigating the Labyrinth

As Willow continues to sell her shoulder slightly, Allysin rolls her to the mat and again tries to sink in the Kimura but Willow keeps turning her body with the pressure not allowing the submission to take affect and eventually Willow is able to roll Allysin on her back for a pin attempt which forced Kay to break the hold. A great, understated little spot in this match.

Willow hits a DVD for two. As she goes to pick Kay up, Allysin attempt to put her into a Triangle Choke. Nightingale pushes forward moving Kay’s shoulders to the mat forcing a pin attempt but rather than releasing, Allysin uses her legs to pull Willow to the mat and transfers to an arm bar which Caprice puts over that she’d like to sink this in before then transferring it to the Kimura again. Instead, Willow fights through and Small DDTs Allysin to gain some distance.

Willow picks Kay up and appears to go for a power bomb but Allysin pitches her up onto her back and hits a Crunchy (not sure if that’s the official name, it’s what Trent? calls it) for a near fall. Willow comes back a big Pounce and then went for a cannonball in the corner but Allysin was standing so it didn’t quite work but it worked well enough to power through. Willow then drags Allysin to the middle of the ring and hits her with a Doctor Bomb which Willow calls the “Babe With The Power Bomb” (a pretty deep cut reference from the movie Labyrinth, which is very on-brand) and stacks a super high pin on Allisyn for the win!

Post match, Allysin remains stacked up for a good 15 seconds as Caprice Coleman begs someone to unfold her. A cool and fun exclamation point on the finish! 😀 While I wasn’t super familiar with Allysin Kay, going back and watching this match again really gave me an appreciation for how good her work is.

I was a big fan of this match and the story it told. The action was excellent, the execution was good to great. And perhaps sets Willow up, as she did in this match, to avenge another past defeat against Mercedes Martinez.

Watch Match on YouTube