An impressive showing by 2 upstarts.
Hooray! It’s Willow! What a babyface she is! Her music is perfect, she’s got this character so figured out! Willow Nightingale is taking on Ashley D’Amboise whose aesthetics are very polished! Her gear, her physical build, everything. I compare her to Britt Baker pre-heel turn, except she’s more of a blank slate. Which is exciting because she could be anything!
Let’s get to the action!
Match starts off with some holds and mat wrestling. Neither woman looks as though they’re carrying the other. Willow shows off some of her great athleticism. She also showing her personality between moves with “taunts” (for lack of a better term). She doesn’t do it to the ridiculous/awesome degree that Ricky Starks does it (between every move, sometimes between every step) but I think there’s something to really play with there and really explore. So for instance, her pinning move where her elbow is in the mat and her chin is resting on her fist and she’s smiling into the camera. Not sure how that usually would play for a babyface but for Nightingale it absolutely works.
High-end Offence
D’Amboise shows off a unique looking move with a Leg Lariat into a Leg Drop. Willow hits a Spinebuster for a 2-count. D’Amboise, again with some unique offence, leaping over the top rope from the apron into a Rolling Neckbreaker. She’s really good. Willow lands an Enseguri, followed by a Pounce followed by a Canon Ball. Then Willow pulls the straps down. Gutrench Doctor Bomb for the win!
D’impressed
For it’s length, this was an excellent, fast, hard hitting match. This is the most I’ve gotten to see from Ashley D’Amboise. I think she’d have a hard time generating heat on Dynamite/Rampage at the moment because I can’t tell what her gimmick is. But as I said earlier, she looks like a great blank slate. Incredibly, Ashley has 56 matches on her resume! 1-year in the business! Upon watching this, I had to rewatch the match. Holy shit, if CageMatch is accurate about her relative lack of experience, she seems like a natural! She has a background in bodybuilding and Jiu-Jitsu so maybe that’s why. She’s one to keep an eye on.
Link to match
The link below has been set to 0:21 into the episode for you to go straight to Willow Nightingale vs Ashley D’Amboise.
Note: Just because I give a match a low rating doesn’t mean I didn’t enjoy it for what it was nor is it necessarily a commentary on the competitors. Not all matches are meant to be 3-to-5 star matches.
Willow Nightingale wins via pinfall
Willow Nightingale wins via pinfallElite
- Some great unique offence from both competitors
- Willow's developing character work
Mid
- Too simple to be a "great" match but still really fun
