AEW Dark Elevation Women's Matches- February 21, 2022 (Episode 51)

 By Mark Rodriguez 

It looks like we got a lot of Women's Matches this time to make up for the one match on last week's Dark. And we actually have 2 Trios Matches. Let's check out the insanity.

Match 1- Freya States, Angelica Risk & Arie Alexander vs Anna Jay, Tay Conti & Red Velvet

The match begins with Tay and Arie locking up, and Tay throwing her backwards and going for a quick pin. Arie kicks out. Tay legsweeps Arie then grabs her arm and cranks it back violently. Freya gets tagged in, who is noticeably taller than Tay, but she still brings the fight to her, throwing chops. Tay goes for the ropes and tries to do a Sunset Flip on her, but Freya just picks her up. Tay fights her way out of her grasp and starts chopping away at her, shoving towards her teammates. Freya shoves Tay clear across the ring. 

Tay runs at Freya with a back elbow and then hits her with a kick to the side of the face. She then tags Anna Jay in and flings her into Freya with another elbow. Anna Jay trips Freya up and then tags Red Velvet in. Velvet jams her boot across Freya's neck until the ref break it up. Velvet drags Freya away from the ropes and kicks her in the face. She then hit her with a running dropkick. Velvet goes for the Standing Moonsault Press into a pin, but Freya kicks out. 

Freya socks Velvet in the face and then grabs her in a spinning backbreaker. Freya drags Velvet to her side of the ring and tags Arie in. Arie drops down, hitting Velvet with a reverse headbutt to the stomach and tags Angelica in. Angelica runs at Velvet with a hip attack and then goes for the pin. Velvet kicks out. Velvet suddenly hits Angelica with a jawbreaker and takes this chance to tag Anna Jay. The only female member of the Dark Order grabs and tosses Angelica Risk with a suplex. 

Anna Jay sets Angelica up against the ringpost and hits her with a running elbow and punch. She then reels back and hits her with a running kick. Anna Jay trips her up and then runs at her, rolling across the mat and nailing her with a kick to the face. Angelica manages to hit Anna Jay with a knee to the stomach and tags Arie in. Anna Jay lands a Jade Kick to the side of the face. As Tay Conti and Red Velvet rush in to spear the other women out of the way, Anna Jay hits Arie with the Queen Slayer and makes her tap. Anna Jay, Tay Conti and Red Velvet won the match.

Match 2- Kaitland Alexis vs The Bunny

Kaitland starts the match by grabbing The Bunny in a waistlock. Bunny breaks out but Kaitland kicks her in the stomach. As The Bunny tries to recover, Kaitland skips around the ring, mocking her. The Bunny responds by slamming her into the mat. The Bunny goes over to pick up her jacket and starts strangling Kaitland with it until the ref stops this. 

The Bunny viciously kicks Kaitland across the back and then slams her face-first into the turnbuckle. Then she starts to kick and stomp all over her opponent. The Bunny backs off for a moment and then hits her with a running elbow to the face. The Bunny grabs Kaitland and yells at her to actually do something, and her opponent hits her with a few elbows to the stomach. Bunny brings this to a quick stop by hitting her across the back with a hammer punch. 

With Kaitland trying to recover, Bunny hits her with a few knee strikes and then rocks her in the air with a Knee Lift. With Kaitland pretty much down and out, Bunny ends this by sending her Down the Rabbit Hole. Bunny gets the pin and the win.

Match 3- Haley J vs Ruby Soho

Ruby is kind enough to offer a handshake to Haley, but her opponent shoves her back. The women lock up and Ruby trips her down and starts slamming the back of Haley's head against the mat several times. Ruby pushes her up against the ring post and hits her with several elbow strikes until the ref break it up. As Ruby comes back, Haley is able to trip her face first into the turnbuckle. Haley throws a few kicks and tries to fling Ruby to another turnbuckle. This time Ruby stops herself and hits Haley with a back elbow.

Haley is rocked as Ruby jumps on the ropes. As Haley runs towards her, Ruby grabs her head with her legs and slams her face into the turnbuckle as she hangs off her. 

Ruby runs into Haley, hitting her with running kicks three times, each time bouncing off a different corner of the ring. With Haley completely dazed, Ruby is ready to grab her with a slam, but suddenly Haley thumbs her across the eyes. Now with Ruby being out of it, Haley grabs her and slams her into the mat. As Ruby gets back up, she catches a kick attempt from Haley and knees her in the face. She then kicks her again and then finisher her off with the No Future kick. With Haley completely out, Ruby pins her and gets the win.

Match 4- Nyla Rose, Leyla Hersch & Emi Sakura vs Skye Blue, Kiera Hogan, & A.Q.A

The match starts with AQA facing off against Nyla Rose. They grapple but Nyla quickly slams her into the mat. AQA uses her quickness to get out of an attempted slam and land some hits on Nyla, actually pushing her back with a dropkick. However as she runs in for another attack, Nyla literally swats her out of the air. Nyla picks her up and launches her into enemy territory. As the ref is distracted, Emi Sakura and Vickie Guerrero land some cheap shots on her. 

Nyla tags Leyla in who hits AQA with double knees to the face and a dropkick off the ropes. Leyla tries for the pin but AQA kicks out. AQA whips Leyla towards the ropes and knocks her down with a dropkick. AQA tries for a pin but Leyla kicks out. AQA takes this chance to tag Kiera in. Leyla runs at Kiera with a kick but she is able to slide under it and kicks her in the face. Kiera quickly follows up with shotgun dropkick, knocking her back.

Kiera tags Skye in and they both roll Leyla across the mat and give her double kicks to the face. Skye goes for the pin but can't keep down. Leyla kicks Skye off her and goes to tag Emi Sakura in. Skye goes in and grabs Emi's arm, taking her down into a roll up pin but is unable to keep her down. Emi puts Skye against the ropes and starts throwing chops to the beat of  'We Will Rock You', finishing it off by running at her with a flying crossbody splash. 

Emi tags Nyla in who quickly grabs Skye in a fireman's carry. Skye is able to elbow her out of it and hits her with a jawbreaker. Skye takes this chance to crawl over and tag in AQA. Nyla kicks AQA down and throw her against the ringpost. She then runs into her, making her fall to the mat after impact. Nyla runs and rolls towards AQA, but she gets out of the way in time, making the Native Beast crash into the ringpost. 

AQA takes this chance to climb the ropes but Vickie grabs her foot. The ref is currently busy keeping Leyla from rushing in illegaly. AQA kicks Vickie away but Nyla grabs her and throws her into the mat. Nyla runs in for a body splash but AQA manages to get out of the way. She barely manages to tag Skye in as she still dealing with the aftershock of being slammed into the mat. 

Skye runs in and hits Leyla with a knee to the face. Skye whips Leyla into the ropes and runs into her with a flying knee. Skye gets amped up and runs towards Leyla but is caught in a waist lock. She avoids getting suplexed by grabbing onto the ropes, and then she drops on Leyla going for the pin.

Skye managed to land a kick to Leyla, knocking her out and goes for the pin. Nyla Rose does an elbow drop to break the pin. Nyla picks up Skye and slams her violently into the mat. Kiera rushes in and kicks Nyla's knee to get her down and then kicks her in the face. Emi runs in and picks up Kiera, hitting her with a backbreaker. AQA hits Emi in the face with an instaguri. Leyla grabs AQA and slams her with a suplex. Leyla targets Skye and runs at her, nailing her in the chin with her knee. With Skye completely out, Leyla pins her and gets the win. The team of Leyla Hirsch, Nyla Rose and Emi Sakura win the match.

My Opinions- 

The first match was pretty good. It's always a pleasure to see Tay Conti in action, she just seems to have so many different moves. Anna Jay and Red Velvet were also good and their opponents put up some decent offense as well. Pretty fun match.

The Bunny match was pretty much a squash. Ruby's match was a bit better as Haley J got some offense in. This was also Haley J's AEW debut. 

The second Trios Match was even more fun and everyone had their moments to shine. I especially like AEW's latest signing AQA as she is super quick and agile. I am curious to see her face Nyla Rose on one one. It's an interesting match up since AQA can run circles around her but if Nyla actually grabs her for one of her power slams, she's in trouble. We also got to see more of Skye Blue can do and Kiera was cool too. I also liked the final moments where every woman was running in and out, each one taking each other out. Like the whole sequence with Emi hitting Kiera in a backbreaker, but then she gets kicked by AQA but then Leyla does a suplex on AQA, that was awesome. 

The only thing I would like to see though, to make the matches seem a little less one-sided, especially with the Trios Matches, is to mix it up a little. You know, like don't pit 3 of the bigger names against 3 of the up and comers. Like maybe a team of Tay Conti, Haley J and KiLynn King vs a team of Ruby Soho, Tesha Price and Angelica Risk. You still get the up and comers but since both teams have star power, you don't know exactly who's gonna win. 

I do like to see how the women are progressing though. Red Velvet and Leyla Hirsch especially went from up-and-comers to becoming bigger names. I do hope that Skye Blue, Kiera Hogan and AQA build themselves up to get there too.