AEW Dark Elevation Ep 70 /NWA USA S3 Ep 3/AEW Dark Ep 151 (Women's Matches)

 By Mark Rodriguez

This time AEW Elevation only had 2 matches while Dark only had one, so I might as well group them all together into this one article. There also wasn't a woman's match for this week's NWA Powerrr but there was a cool tag team title defense on NAW USA, so let's check them all out. 

Match 1 (NWA)- Allysin Kay & Marti Belle VS Kenzie Paige & Ella Envy (Tag Title Match)

Pretty Empowered (Kenzie and Ella) just won the tag titles off The Hex (Allysin and Marti) during the recent NWA PPV Alwayz Ready, and former champs are pretty angry. The match opens with The Hex just walking right up to the ring and starting to give the beat down on the champs before they even rang the bell. With the bell finally rung, The Hex grabbed both members of Pretty Empowered and whipped them towards each other where they would knock them out of the ring with a Big Boot to the face. 

Allysin and Marti would get out of the ring after them, continuing to smack the champs around. Allyin shoves Kenzie against the barricade and then grabs and walks with Ella, giving her a hard chop across the chest. She makes sure to break the count (they are still outside of the ring) and then shoves Ella right into Kenzie, knocking both women down. 

Marti and Kenzie get into to finally start the match proper. Marti hits Kenzie with a Snapmare but as she runs for the ropes, Ella grabs her onto her ankle from the outside. Marti turns her attention towards Ella, which gives Kenzie time to hit her a forearm strike the moment she turns back to face her. Kenzie kicks Marti down and then set her up against the turnbuckle in her team's corner. She then gives her  a brutal chop to the chest. The crows boos and as Kenzie shuts them up, Marti tries to attack both members of Pretty Empowered but Kenzie quickly kicks her down. She then tags in Ella.

don't get distracted Marti!

Ella Envy quickly puts the boots to Marti and pressed her boot against her throat. Kenzie is tagged back in and starts kicking her as Ella taunts her. Marti socks Ella in the face but Kenzie punches her in the back of the head. Kenzie continues throwing punches and chops until Marti finally starts throwing some punches of her own. Kenzie quickly shut down her attempted comeback, grabbing her and tagging Ella back in. Kenzie swings Marti towards Ella where she can spinkick her in the face. Kenzie and Ella both Superkick Marti in the face while the ref keeps Allysin from stepping in. However this also means the ref was too distracted to see Ella try to pin Marti, giving her opponent time to kick out. 

Ella angrily whips Marti back to their corner where she continues to kick her and both members of Pretty Empowered trash talk her. Marti has enough and socks both of them out. She tries to crawl over to her partner but Ella manages to grab her. Marti kicks her off and tags in Allysin who quickly knocks Ella down. Allysin ducks under and attempted clothesline and slams Ella down with a snapbreaker. Allysin goes for the pin but Kenzie breaks the pin. Kenzie goes after Marti who socks her in the face. As Marti stumbles over, Allysin grabs her and slams her with a Silo Suplex. 

Allysin grabs Ella for 'X Marks the Spot' but as Marti runs towards the ropes to do her part, Kenzie grabs her and pulls her out of the ring. Ella tries to go for a surprise roll up pin but Allysin kicks out. Allysin then kicks her in the face, knocking her back down. Allysin grabs Ella and slams her in a variation of the Deadeye Piledriver and goes for the pin, but Kenzie kicks her in the face to break it up.

Marti goes after Kenzie and they start slugging it out. The ref tells them to stop it since neither of them are the legal members of the match. Marti throws Kenzie out of the ring and hops out after her. Ella sneaks in and clocks Allysin in the face with the Tag Team Title Belt, knocking her out completely. The ref was busy dealing with Marti that he missed it. Kenzie gets the pin and wins the match. Even though they retained the titles, Kenzie isn't quite as pleased that they had to win using dirty tactics.

Match 2- (AEW Dark Elevation)- Megan Meyers vs Anna Jay (with -1)

As Anna Jay walks up to Megan Meyers, she falls facefirst and contorts herself in a creepy way. Both women lock up and Megan pushes Anna Jay up against the ropes. The ref breaks it up and when Megan walks back over to her opponent, Anna Jay kicks her in the face. Both women hit the ropes and Ann Jay knocks Megan down with a running elbow.

Megan whips Anna Jay towards the ropes, but she gets out of the way as Megan run in and hits the turnbuckle. Anna Jay hits her from the ring apron and sends her back to the mat with an armdrag. Megan runs at her and Anna Jay catches her and Face Plants her. Megan manages to land a kick across the face, and sends Anna Jay towards the ropes where she smacks her several time until the referee stops her.

Anna Jay knocks Megan down with two clotheslines. Both women around at each other and Anna Jay knocks her down with a slingblade. Anna Jay throws her towards corner and hits her with a running elbow. She then throws her into the other corner and hits her with a running back kick. With Megan down on the mat, Anna Jay rolls over and gives her a low kick to the face.

Anna Jay grabs Megan's arm and kicks her in the back of the head. She then grabs her for a hold and drops her right in the middle of the Queen Slayer. Megan taps out and Anna Jay won the match. -1 comes in to celebrate with her.

Match 3- (AEW Dark Elevation)- Heather Reckless & Laynie Luck vs. Hikaru Shida & Yuka Sakazaki

Hikaru Shida and Yuka Sakazaki get attacked by their opponents before they can finish their intro. Yuka gets kicked out of the ring and Heather and Laynie attack Hikaru. The former AEW Woman's Champ manages to shove one into the other and then takes out Laynie with a jumping side kick. Hikaru sets Laynie up against the ropes and starts punching away as Yuka and the crowd counts the hits. While the ref is distracted, Heather grabs Hikaru and pulls her off her partner and both women start to attack her. Both women fling Hikaru thowards the ropes and Laynie whips Heather into her. 

Heather holds onto Hikaru as Laynie runs into her with an uppercut. Laynie slams Hikaru with a Suplex Pin but she kicks out. Hikaru throws a punch that Laynie blocks and gets punched back. Laynie ducks under Hikaru's kick but the former champ lowers her heel onto the back of her head. Hikaru and Laynie tag their partners in. Yuka runs in and knocks Heather down.

Yuka grabs Heather and does a forward roll with her, ending with a kick to the face. The Magical Girl bounces off the ropes and hits her with a low running elbow to the face. She goes for the pin but Heather kicks out. Yuka takes to the top turnbuckle and knocks Heather back with a Missile Dropkick. Hikaru also jumps off the ropes and hits her with double knees, knocking Heather flat on her back.

Hikaru is about to pick up Heather for a Vertical Suplex but Laynie runs in to grab her hair and rake her across the eyes. Yuka gets in and grabs her as Hikaru picks up Heather again. Hikaru goes for the Vertical Suplex while Yuka slams Laynie down. With both opponents in a sitting position, Hikaru and Yuka run in and knock them both down.

Yuka rolls Laynie out of the ring as Hikaru picks up Heather and slams her down with the Falcon Arrow. Hikaru pins her and gets the win, making the team of Hikaru and Yuka the victors of the evening.

Match 4- A.Q.A vs Avery Breaux

Avery tries to grab AQA in a waistlock but she gets out of it. Avery taunts her but quickly backs away towards the ropes once AQA gets all up on her face. Once the ref gets some space between then, AQA quickly gets Avery in a roll up pin but she gets out of it. AQA shoves her back and talks trash. Avery goes towards her and knees her in the midsection. She socks her in the face and then tries to pick her up. AQA fights against this and attempts another roll up pin that Avery kicks out of. 

AQA runs towards Avery but gets stopped by another harsh knee to the midsection. Avery flings her towards the ropes, but the quick and agile AQA jumps to the top turnbuckle and topples her with a flying body splash. She uses this as a pin but her opponent kicks out. Avery gets back up and knocked against the ropes by AQA's dropkick. Her smaller opponent then clocks her with a jumping punch. Avery falls in a sitting position and AQA runs in to do another attack, but is tripped up so she lands face first into the middle turnbuckle.

Avery takes this chance to slam the back of AQA's head against the mat. She then gets her up against the ropes and starts kicking at her and pressing her boot against her throat. With AQA down and dazed, Avery does a pose and runs at her with a cannonball. Avery pins her but she kicks out. Avery tries for a second pin and when that fails, she angrily gets her in a rear chin lock.

AQA gets to her feet and hits her with elbows until she can finally break free from the hold. Avery hits her in the face again and whips her towards the ropes. She runs towards her, but AQA shoulder blocks her. AQA leaps out of Avery's path and hits her with a running elbow. She knocks her down again with a lariat and then send her back to the mat a third time with a slingblade. 

AQA goes for a high roundhouse kick that Avery ducks, but then she swings her leg back and hits her that second time. AQA finishers her off with a Flipping Neckbreaker and goes for the pin. She had won a hard fought battle.

My Thoughts- 

Quite a set of matches this week, and some familiar faces that we haven't seen in a while. The NWA match was pretty good, the former champs were angry and brought that intensity over to the rematch. I liked the little dispute between Laynie being a bit more noble while Ella believes in winning by any means necessary. We'll see how that goes between them. Allysin and Marti got some good moves there, but in this case Marti seemed to be the one taking most of the damage. 

Anna Jay seems to finish her matches rather quickly, but this time Megan gave her at least a bit of a fight. We also haven't seen Negative One in a while. It kinda bites that Tay now follows Sammy whenever he goes because not only do we no longer see her teaming with Anna Jay anymore, we don't even see her in solo matches anymore.

It's always good to see Hikaru Shida and Yuka Sakazaki in action, and I loved the double slam they did on their opponents. I'm sure I got the names right between Heather and Laynie but the commentary was so busy gushing over Hikaru and Yuka they never even named their opponents once after the bell rang. 

AQA was in for a fight against Avery as she saw herself get overpowered at every turn. She is fast and agile but is also pretty tiny compared to her opponents, so she really has to fight for it. If anything, it makes her victory feel more earned as she scrapped her way to the top. 

Finally, it seems Nyla Rose is finally getting back on TV as her team with Marina Shafir will be face off against the new tag team Thunder Storm of Thunder Rosa and Toni Storm on this week's episode of AEW Dynamite.