By Mark Rodriguez
Looks like AEW Dark has a super stacked card, though it looks like we only have one Women's match. I decided to check out NWA Powerrr and see how their women's wrestling plays out, and it seems they got several matches here. I have seen some of the women in NWA that have been on AEW like Kiera Hogan, so we might see some crossover as time goes by. As for AEW, we get to see Emi Sakura in some solo action.
AEW Dark Match 1- Angelica Risk vs Emi Sakura
Angelica offered a handshake and Emi slapped her hand away. Both women get into a scuffle, with Emi ends with a hard chop across the chest. Emi then grabs her and just flings her across the ring. Emi then grabs Angelica and gets her into a flag surfboard submission type move. Angelica and only scream in pain until Emi kicks her off.
Angelica grabs Emi and slams her down with a swinging neckbreaker. She goes for the pin but Emi kicks out. Angelica signals to the crowd for another swinging neckbreaker, but as she grabs Emi, she reverses it and plants Risk with a Queen's Gambit Backbreaker on her knee. With Angelica dazed, Emi starts her 'We Will Rock You' chant and delivers a chop, followed by a running crossbody splash against the turnbuckle.
Emi picks up Angelica, holding her upside down and taking her time, turning so the whole crowd can see from all angles, before dropping her into another Queen's Gambit. Rather than pin her outright, Emi picks her up again for another, much harsher slam. This time she pins Angelica Risk and wins the match.
Tootie Lynn comes in with her tag team partner Kylie Rae, as they form the 'Smiley Dragons'. On the other side, Marti Belle comes in with her partner, Allysin Kay, as they are both the NWA Women's Tag Team Champs known as The Hex.
As the match begins, both women go in to grapple but Lynn actually rolls out of the way. Lynn tries to do a spinning kick that Marti dodges. She tries for a chop but Marti avoids her and runs over to shoulder tackle her down. Before Marti can run, Lynn grabs her foot and kicks her down and manages to kick her in the face.
Lynn gets into a fight stance as Marti tries to regain her bearings. She goes for a handshake, but it's a trick to try to roll up pin her. Lynn kicks out. Marti runs and clocks her in the chest with a running knee. Marti goes for a pin but can't keep her down. She sends Lynn to the turnbuckle and hits her with running elbow, then bounces back and hits her with a running hip attack. Marti tries for another pin, but Lynn kicks out. Marti grabs her and slams her with a suplex.
Marti gets her up against the ropes and starts hitting her with elbows but Lynn finally fights back. After throwing a few elbows of her own, she runs towards Marti but gets cut short with a high kick to the mid-section. With Lynn down, Marti grabs her in a headlock.
Tootie Lynn runs towards the turnbuckle but Marti gets out of the way. Rather than crash against the ringpost, Tootie jumps to the ropes and lands on Marti with a flying crossbody pin. Marti still kicks out.
Lynn picks her up this time, but Marti still escaped it and hits her with a Russian Legsweep. Marti is still unable to keep Lynn long enough for a pinfall.
Marti grabs Lynn in an underhook, but she is still able to escape out of it. Lynn grabs her arm and kicks her in the face. Lynn grabs her in a waist lock but Marti isn't letting go of the ropes. As Lynn falls back, Marti runs in for a kick to the face. Marti dodges the kick but grabs her leg and pulls her down with a roll up pin combined with a bridge which keeps down long enough to get the win. Tootie Lynn celebrates her victory with Kylie Rae while the commentary says they should get a title match against The Hex.
As the match starts, both women grapple with Jennacide getting the power advantage and pressing Natalia against the ringpost until the ref breaks it up. Natalia hits Jennacide with a chop she barely feels, but when Jennacide returns the favor, Natalia drops to the ground. Natalia tries to shove Jennacide, which barely moves her, Jennacide shoves Natalia back and sends her rolling to the other side of the ring.
Natalia runs at Jennacide and sends her down with a flying headscissors. Now with Jennacide rocked, Natalia charges at her with a running elbow. Jennacide goes toward another turnbuckle and Natalia hits her with a second running elbow. Natalia goes for a running kick but Jennacide grabs her leg and slams her down in a forced split. Before Natalia can react, Jennacide stomps her on the back and goes for the pin. Natalia kicks out. Jennacide grabs her and starts hitting her with several knee strikes before sending her across the ringpost. Jennacide charges at her and hits her with a running boot across the face that drops her opponent. Jennacide rolls back and then hits her with a running lariat. She takes time to pose for the crowd.
Natalia gets up and runs at Jennacide, hoping to knock her off the ring with a shoulder tackle. She tries to go for a headbutt but gets caught between the ropes, leaving herself open for Jennacide to kick her in the face. Jennacide gets back into the ring and hits her with a headbutt, followed by a series of kicks. She picks up and slams her down in a vertical suplex. She goes for the pin but Natalia kicks out.
Natalia starts throwing some punches but Jennacide sends her to the ringpost. As Jennacide runs towards her, Natalia gets out of the way and tries for a roll up pin but is knocked back. Jennacide runs at her and hits her with a running boot, but also uses her leg to slam Natalia down for a pin. Natalia still escapes.
Both women get into each other's face, now pissed at each other and start trading elbow shots. Jennacide hits her with a double chop on her chest and drops Natalia to her knees. Jennacide tells her opponent to hit her more, and Natalia lets loose with punches. As she runs against the ropes to come in with a bigger attack, Jennacide just runs into her and flattens her against the ropes. Jennacide grabs her into a spinebuster pin, but she still can't keep her down. Jennacide runs towards Natalia but falls over the top rope and outside the ring. Natalia runs for a Tope Suicida but Jennacide stops her with a European Uppercut, getting her tangled with the ropes.
Jennacide tries to pick up her up so she can slam her into the ring apron, but Natalia punches her off her. Even after taking all those strikes, Jennacide picks her up and slams her into the concrete, hurting herself in the process. Both women writhe in pain but have to beat the count out. Natalia gets into the ring first and starts kicks Jennacide in the face to prevent her from getting back in as well. Jennacide picks her up and slams her into the ring apron. They both fall outside the ring again. Both women lose to a double count-out and are still unable to get up.
NWA Match 3- Christi Jaynes VS Melina
Christi grabs Melina, but the veteran does a headscissors that sends her crashing down. With Christi staggering, Melina knocks her down with a dropkick. With Christi sitting on the ring apron trying to regain her senses, Melina gets ready to run at her. Melina takes too long and Christi gets out of the way and manages to grab her arm and kick her in the face.
Christi sends Melina to the ringpost and hits her with a running elbow. Christi reels back and runs at her with double-knees to the face. Christi grabs her and rolls her across the mat and then kicks her in the back of the head. She goes for the pin. Melina kicks out. Christi hits her from behind and Melina hangs on the ropes. Christi plants her knee onto Melina, hoping to choking her against the ropes.
Christi gets Melina up against the turnbuckle again, but this time Melina grabs her with one leg while kicking her a few times with the other. Melina gets Christi up against the turnbuckle and Christie tries to kick her this time. Melina catches her legs, moves them into the ropes and socks Christi in the face. Melina climbs the ropes and stomps her into the mat. Melina goes for a pin but Christi kicks out.
Christie goes for her own pin but then transitions it into an STF submission hold. Melina manages to get to the ropes to break the hold. Both women now start socking each other in the face. Melina hits her with a shoulder-tackle and both of them start to run and bounce of the ropes, trying to get at each other. Melina grabs her and slams her face-first into the mat. Melina knocks her down again, then grabs her arm and kicks her in the back of the head. Melina runs at Christi and is caught. As Melina tries to do a hurricarana, Christi stops her from getting tossed over, but Melina still grabs her and slams her face into the mat again.
Melina tries to pick her up but Christi grabs her arm and socks her in the face. Melina tries to swing at Christi again, but is caught and is flung in and over the shoulder toss the mat. Christi then smacks her with a violent knee to the face. Despite this, Melina somehow kicks out of a pin attempt. Christi picks up Melina, but she wiggles her way out of it. Christi tries for a dropkick but misses, and Melina quickly grabs her legs. It looks like she was going for a leglock, but instead she transitions to a stack up pin, and this time she is able to score the win.
My Opinions-
I haven't seen Emi Sakura in a singles match for a while, she always seem to be in some sort of tag team or triple threat match or anything that isn't one on one. We got to see some of her moves, but Angelica Risk still brought the fight to her. She got some decent offense in with that swinging neckbreaker. Emi also did her usual Freddy Mercury thing, but it was also interesting to see her take her time holding Risk upside, turning around to face all 4 corners of the crowd before finally slamming her down with the Queen's Gambit. It was a fun match.
As for NWA, I was surprised to see the all the familiar faces, especially former WWE Superstar Melina. So the first match was alright, but Tootie and Marti both seemed kinda green and their hits barely seemed to show any impact. Maybe this is a case where the veterans Kylie and Allysin and teaching both of their partners the ropes so they can grow. I really liked Tootsie's martial arts gimmick and the stances and all that, but hopefully she learns to make those kicks look more painful.
The next match on the other hand... these women were socking each other in the face like nobody's business. Jennacide is one tall intimidating woman and she clearly had the power advantage, but Natalia refused to back down. We saw slams into the concrete floor, we saw slams into the ring apron. I liked that move Jennacide did when she not only kicked her opponent but also used the same leg to slam her down. Plus it's not too often you see someone actually stop a Tope Suicida, especially since nowadays matches seem full of them. Seeing them both in pain on the floor, struggling to get up to beat the countout brought tension to things. Jennacide chose to slam Natalia into the apron rather than find a way to climb back into the ring. It's pretty intense.
Likewise the match with Melina was intense as Christi was really trying hard to take her down. Things got crazy during that one and I was surprised at how they were able to kick out of such moves at times. It was also a very intense match where both of them were trying so hard to overcome the other.
I might start reviewing NWA matches here and there, though mostly if AEW Dark or Dark Elevation only has one Women's Match. It was cool to see familiar faces like Allysin Kay and Kylie Rae. Of course Melina is known for her time in WWE, and nowadays it seems she's both in NWA and Impact. She had recently had a few matches with the likes of Kylie Rae, Chelsea Greene, Deonna Purazzo and Kamille who is the current NWA World Women's Champ. I'm wondering what other familiar faces we might see in NWA's female roster.
Back to the AEW, another big shocker is that Cody Rhodes, one of the founders, if not THE founder of AEW has decided to leave the company alongside his wife Brandi Rhodes. It's still too soon to see where all of this gonna go.
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