AEW Dark Elevation Women's Matches- February 28, 2022 (Episode 52)

 By Mark Rodriguez

We got another Trios match, but also get to see Red Velvet take on Skye Blue as well as Legit Leyla Hirsch cause some trouble. 

Match 1- Skye Blue vs Red Velvet

Both women lock up and Red quickly tosses Blue over with an armdrag. They lockdown again and this time Blue is the one flipping Red over. They both shake hands to show show respect and lock up again. Red Velvet gets Skye in a headlock, which she pushes her way out of. Red bounces off the ropes and knocks her down with a shoulder tackle. 

Both women try to outdo each other with armdrags and even try to take each other out with dropkicks at the same time. They shake hands and go for another lock up but this time Skye rolls behind her and grabs her opponent's leg. She trips her up and tries to go for a kick to the face. Red catches her boot but is kicked anyways as Skye spins with the other leg. 

Legit Leyla Hirsch shows up as the match continues. Velvet hasn't seen her yet and hits Skye with a standing moonsault press, but couldn't keep her down. Leyla slowly walks towards the ring, now distracting Velvet. Skye goes for the roll up pin but Velvet kicks out. Skye lands a superkick to the face but still couldn't get the pinfall.

Red Velvet plants Skye with her finisher and wins the match. Leyla is still in the rampway, taunting Velvet. Velvet calls her over to the ring but Leyla is choosing to just taunt her and continue the mindgames as their feud continues.

Match 2- LMK, Kayla Sparks, Paris Van Dale vs Nyla Rose, Emi Sakura & Diamante

Before the bell can even ring, Vickie Guerrero's heel trio starts attacking the newcomers. After the women go to their corners, Kayla and Paris grab Nyla and throw her against the ropes. They go for the double-clothesline but can't get the Native Beast to budge. Nyla growls and knocks both of them down with a double-clothesline of her own. Nyla grabs Paris and goes over to tag in Emi. 

Emi Sakura starts with her Freddie Mercury Chops ending it with a running crossbody up against the ringpost. Paris manages to get Emi in jawbreaker and takes this moment to quickly tag Kayla Sparks. Kayla runs over and knocks Emi down. Kayla runs over and hit Emi with a running knee to face. Kayla runs towards Emi again but misses and hits the turnbuckle. Emi quickly tags Nyla back in.

Nyla goes for a chokehold slam but Kayla jumps out of it and knocks her down with a dropkick from behind. Paris is tagged in but Nyla grabs her and runs her over to her corner where she can tag in Diamante. Nyla picks up Diamante and drops her onto Paris, which also becomes a pin. Paris manages to kick out. Paris runs over to tag LMK, but the newcomer quickly gets picked up and backslammed by Diamante. Diamante goes for the pin.

Paris comes in to break up the pin and get Diamante off of LMK. Emi and Nyla rush into the ring, with Emi quickly socking Kayla out so she couldn't get in the ring, and Nyla rolling Paris out of the ring as well. This leaves LMK at the mercy of the heel trio as Nyla Rose picks her up and slams her and Emi Sakura does a body drop on her. Diamante grabs her in a submission hold which makes LMK tap out, scoring the win for Vickie Guerrero's team. 

Match 3- Willow Nightingale vs "Legit" Leyla Hirsch

The match starts with Willow trying to grab Leyla, but missing as Leyla basically acts as if she's not with her time. Willow drops her smile and runs over angrily to grab her in a headlock. Leyla flings Willow towards the ropes, but she runs back in and shoulder bumps her. Leyla hits her with a knee and pushes her towards the ropes. Willow cartwheels out of it but Leyla hits her with a dropkick before she can finish.

As Willow recoils up against the ropes, Leyla wraps one of her arms around the ropes and keeps her caught as she socks her in the face repeatedly. Leyla brings Willow up against the ringpost and head-rams her a few times until the ref breaks it up. Leyla tosses her to the ringpost on the other side of the ring and runs at her with an elbow. She then tips Willow off her feet and poses to the crowd. 

Leyla backs off and rolls towards Willow for a running elbow, but she misses and hits the turnbuckle. This time Willow gets to sock her across the face. Leyla shoves her back, and this time Willow is able to cartwheel out of harm's way successfully. As Leyla runs towards her, Willow knocks her down with an air pounce that shoves her to the mat. With Leyla up against the ringpost, Willow runs her and hits her with a big cannonball. 

Willow takes this chance to drag Leyla away from the ropes. She climbs the ropes and does an impressive backflips, but Leyla moves out of the way so she crashes against the mat. Leyla hits her with a running knee to the face and then gets her in the Armbar. Willow taps and Leyla takes the win. Leyla's feud with both Red Velvet and Kris Stratlander continues.

My Opinions-

Um wow... not sure what happened with the first match. It looked more like Skye and Velvet were rehearsing the match than actually having a match. I don't know, there was barely any impact, at times it looked like Skye was holding back as if she were afraid to actually hurt Velvet. The only good things about this match was Skye's awesome superkick and the fact that Leyla showed up. It's too bad they didn't give the win to Skye in this one. The old 'person is distracted by someone else and loses to a roll up pin' routine. I mean, they tried it, but Velvet kicked out. It woulda been more unexpected had she lost, as a result of Leyla being there to both make their feud have more heat but also give Skye a big win.

The trios match was a lot better and I'm noticing people are really enjoying these, some even calling it the highlight of Dark Elevation. We didn't see much of LMK but Paris and Kayla got some decent offense in. By now you kinda have to laugh at Emi. Unless she has a full match where she can show off her plethora or holds and slams, in these trios matches, the most she does are the 'We will Rock You' chops followed by the running crossbody splash. I did like that Diamante got to score the win. She is awesome.

The last match was ok, especially once Willow started getting some moves in. The flying pounce move was impressive and got a big pop from the crowd. Her backflip of the ropes was awesome and surely would have won the match if it connected. I have to admit, from Leyla's side, I never saw someone actually attack someone mid-cartwheel and Willow sold the backpain well. It was a pretty good match though I would have liked to have seen Red Velvet come in and distract her and cost her the match. That would have wiped the smug smile off her face and throw more fire to the feud. 

I noticed that, unless they do one of their last minute Buy-In matches for AEW Revolution, the Leyla/Kris/Velvet feud isn't going to be featured in the PPV. Sure it might not have enough heat to make it in a big PPV match currently, but it's not unlike AEW to suddenly make something happen on this week's Dynamite to get us there. Who knows where this feud will finally explode if not at Revolution.