AEW Dark Episode 154 (Women's Matches)

 By Mark Rodriguez

We get three matches this week as Kiera Hogan returns to action as well as the Dark Julia Hart and The Problem Marina Shafir.

Match 1- Kiera Hogan vs Allie Recks 

Kiera starts things off kicking Allie in the midsection and throwing some elbow shots to the face. Allie manages to sock her in the face and then does a cartwheel and elbows her up against the ropes. Allie grabs Kiera in a snapmare and then knocks her back with a dropkick. She goes for a pin but Kiera kicks out. Kiera gets Allie in a jawbeaker but her opponent tries to get her in a back slide pin. Kiera kicks out of her pin attempts and manages to kick her in the face, knocking her on her back. 

Kiera runs towards Allie and knocks her up against the ropes with a flying dropkick. Kiera hits her with a running hip attack and then a running single leg slide dropkick. Kiera gets Allie with a Legdrop and then lays her out with a roundhouse kick to the face. 

Match 2- Tracy Nyxx vs Marina Shafir 

Marina stops Tracy from charging towards her with a kick to the stomach. Marina grabs her and hits her with knee strikes and then flips her to the mat. Marina then kicks her in the spine. Marina grabs her arm and starts attacking it until Tracy starts throwing some elbow strikes at her. The Problem asks for more and as Tracy takes a swing, Marina knees her in the stomach and then knees her in the face.

Tracy is up against the ropes and hits Marina with an elbow to the face to keep her away. Marina throws some deadly kicks at her, and Tracy rolls out of the ring. Marina paces around the ring and just glares at Tracy until she manages to get herself together and climb back into the ring. Tracy goes for a flying dropkick but it barely makes the former UFC fighter budge. Tracy goes for  a kick but Marina catches her leg and lands a body shot. Before Tracy can fall, Marina catches her and slams her, going for the Greedy submission movie. Tracy taps out and Marina scores the win.

Match 3- Renee Michelle vs Julia Hart 

Julia starts off giving that deadly cold glare as Renee starts to carefully plan her first moves. Renee tries to grab her but Julia grabs her legs and makes her fall. Julia gets on her back and savagely yanks her hair, pulling her head from side to side as she screams. The ref gets Julia off her and Renee grabs her for a surprise roll up pin but she gets knocked off. Renee runs at her but Julia stops her with a kick to the stomach and a hammer punch across the back.

Julia shoves her towards the ropes but Renee hangs on to avoid falling off the apron. Julia grabs her hair and whips her head against the ropes, making her drop out of the ring. Julia gets out of the ring, grabs Renee and rolls her back in. As Julia goes up to her, Renee manages to knock her down with a spinning kick. Renee goes for the pin but Julia kicks out. Renee grabs her for a scoop slam but Julia slips behind her and shoves her into the turnbuckle.

Julia does a front handspring but only elbows the turnbuckle as Renee gets out of the way. She still hits her in the face with a back elbow. Renee manages to grab Julia in a Northern Lights Suplex but she still kicks out. Renee charges at her and Julia lays her out with a kick to the face. Julia grabs her and flings her towards the ring post. She does the forward handspring and this time her elbow does land its target. 

Julia continues the punishment by hitting Renee with a running elbow and then rolls her across the mat. Julia gets Renee in a submission hold and she quickly taps. Julia scores another win for herself and the House of Black.

My Thoughts-

This was pretty much a regular episode of Dark, so there wasn't too much to say, at least in regards to the women's matches. Maybe they could have spiced it up with a tag or trios match somewhere. Kiera got to see some in ring action, as nowadays she is mostly one of Jade's baddies and we don't see too many matches with her joining Jade and Red Velvet too often.

Marina is always fun to watch brutalize people and give that cold hardened fighter no-nonsense glare. Julia is also fun to watch with her own creepy dark glare that always freaks out her opponents and gives her the psychological edge. 

These shows are hard to predict when you'll get an intense match and when they're just... dark matches. It seems more of the better matches are on Dark Elevation but then Dark sometimes randomly gets something like Thunder Rosa VS Miyu Yamashita like last week.

It would be fun to some day see Marina and Julia have a glare-down.