AEW Dark Episode 165- October 25, 2022 (Women's Matches)

 By Mark Rodriguez

We got a trio of matches tonight. Athena gets an unexpected crowd reaction and Riho faces her longtime rival, Jungle Kyona. 

Match 1- Alexia Nicole vs "The Fallen Goddess" Athena 

Alexia Nicole starts the match by gabbing Athena in a Cazadora and then sending her to the mat with an armdrag. Athena is impressed and the crowd starts cheering for Alexia. Alexia sends Athena to the mat with a Tijeras and then knocks her down with 2 consecutive dropkicks. She goes for the pin but Athena kicks out. 

Alexia takes the chance to climb to the top ropes. Before she can do anything, Athena quickly runs in and hits her with a running high boot to the face. Alexia drops to the mat. The crowd starts booing Athena and it seems Toronto really love Alexia Nicole. 

Not the kind of crowd reaction Athena was expecting tonight

Regardless of the boos, Athena lifts up Alexia for a delayed sideways suplex but her opponent slips from her grasp and lands on her feet. Alexia goes for the Cazadora again but this time Athena grabs her and suplexes her. Athena run into her with a hip attack and then rolls her to the mat. As Alexia gets back up, The Fallen Goddess knocks her back down with a spinning lariat. 

The crowd continues to boo and Athena apologizes to the crowd, but she gotta take her opponent down. Alexia slips behind her and gets in a roll up pin. Athena kicks out. Alexia runs towards Athena and ducks under the lariat but isn't fast enough to avoid The High Boot. Athena picks her up and slams her down with a Backstabber combined with a Facebuster and gets the pin. 

Since the crowd loved Alexia so much, Athena helps her up so they can both bask in the adoration of the crowd. 

Match 2- Jungle Kyona vs Riho 

Both women start to grapple and Kyona gets Riho in a headlock. Riho shoves her towards the ropes but Kyona knocks her down with a shoulder tackle. Kyona planned to drop onto Riho with a Diving Headbutt but the former AEW champ gets out of the way. Riho goes for a dropkick but also misses. Kyona goes for a quick pin but Riho slides out from under her. 

Riho goes for a flying crossbody and gets caught by Kyona. Kyona drops her with a Fall-Away Slam. Kyona grabs Riho by the hair and then flings her across the ring. Riho is up against the ropes and Kyona plants her knee across her face. Kyona grabs Riho for a Snapmare and then starts pulling her arms back while planting her knee into her back. Kyona brings on the pain as she then plants her boot up against Riho's face, still yanking her arms back. Finally letting go of her, Kyona bounces off the ropes and hits her long time rival with a running dropkick across the spine. Kyona goes for the pin but the premiere AEW Women's Champ kicks out.

Jungle Kyona might have had her AEW Debut here, but she has wrestled against Riho several times 

Riho runs at Kyona and sends her flying to the mat with the Tijeras. With Kyona hanging onto the ropes, Riho runs over and hits her with the Tiger Feint Kick (pretty much the 619). Riho goes for the pin but her rival kicks out. 

Riho tries to grab her for the Northern Lights Suplex but Kyona hits her across the back. Kyona is let go and she runs to the ropes but Riho runs right after her and hits her with a high knee strike. With Kyona dazed, Riho grabs her for the Northern Lights Suplex but her rival kicked out. 

Riho takes to the top rope but Kyona runs over and socks her in the face. Riho fires back with elbow strikes and then trips up her legs out from under her. With Kyona caught hanging off the ropes, Riho leaps off the top and lands on her with a diving stomp.

With Kyona down and out, Riho goes for the top rope to finish her with a Diving Stomp. Kyona rolls out of the way as Riho lands on the mat and rolls to her feet. Riho runs towards Kyona, and gets laid out with a hard elbow strike to the face. Kyona grabs her and tries to pick her up but Riho wraps herself around her in a guillotine hold. Riho pulls Kyona to the mat but she fights her way back to her feet. She then slams Riho with a Suplex.

Jungle Kyona bounces off the ropes and knocks Riho down with a sliding lariat. She goes for the pin but the former champ kicks out. Kyona gets Riho up against the ropes and then crashed into with a running elbow strike. Kyona picks up Riho and getting her ready for what looks like a Muscle Buster. Riho drops out of her grasp and hits her with a double knee strike. Riho takes this chance to climb onto the top rope and land on Kyona with a diving foot stomp. She goes for the pin but Kyona still kicks out.

As Kyona sits up, Riho runs at her and knocks her out with a double knee strike to the face. She goes for the pin and wins the match.

Match 3- Emi Sakura & "The Professor" Serena Deeb vs KC Spinelli & Taylor Rising 

The match opens with Deeb and Taylor getting into a grapple. Deeb flips Taylor across the mat with an arm drag. Deeb grabs onto her wrist and pins her down with a hammerlock. Deeb gets her in a side headlock and Taylor shoves her towards the ropes. Deeb bounces back and knocks her down with a shoulder tackle. Deeb taunts Taylor and allows her to tag in KC. As KC steps into the ring, Serena tells her to bring it on.

Deeb grapples KC over to her ring corner where she tags in Emi. Emi starts kicking her down. Emi bites into KC's wrist and then lifts her up in a delayed vertical position. Emi brings her crashing down onto her knee for a back breaker. Emi folds KC up and slaps her on the butt. Then she sits on her for some tea time. 

Emi tries to grab KC for another move but her opponent catches her off guard with a jawbreaker. KC takes this chance to tag in Taylor. Taylor takes to the top rope and knocks Emi down with a flying body splash. Taylor tries to grab Emi for a slam, but Emi reverses it into a spinning neckbreaker. As Taylor is reeling, Emi runs over and punches KC off the ring apron. With Taylor laid up against the ropes, Emi starts doing the Queen chops and rocks her with the running crossbody splash.

Serena Deeb gets tagged in and she slides under Taylor. Rather than go for a pin, she sits on Taylor's neck while wrenching her arms back. KC runs in to knock Emi off the ring apron and then socks Deeb in the face. Deeb just takes the punch and doesn't let Taylor go. It takes a kick to the face from KC to finally knock Deeb over. KC quickly grabs and drags Taylor over to her corner so she can legally be tagged in.

KC runs up to Deeb while she is still affected by the earlier kick and tries to grab her. Both fight over who can slam the other first and Deeb manages to get KC in the Detox Slam first. Deeb goes for the Serenity Lock and Emi runs over to grab Taylor in a submission hold of her own. KC taps out and the tag team of Emi Sakura and Serena Deeb win the match.

My thoughts- 

We had some good matches tonight. It was funny seeing the crowd just boo the hell out of Athena. She seemed legit surprised and she even had to apologize to the crowd for slamming Alexia down.  Alexia did have some impressive moves, though she needs a bit more work. It was cool that Athena went over to raise her arm so they can both get the applause.

The Riho match against Jungle Kyona was pretty good too. Jungle Kyona is a long time favorite for several fans, so here's hoping we get to see more of her, not just on Dark but also on Dynamite and Rampage. I do feel that in this match Jungle Kyona should have won. She grabbed the crowd's attention and Riho, being former champ and all that, can afford to take the loss. 

The tag match was pretty good. It's always good to see Serena bring her different holds and Emi use her wacky shenanigans. I feel bad for Taylor though, she really got the worst of it from all of Deeb's holds. 

This was a decent episode and I really hope we get to see Jungle Kyona on TV. As for Riho, she recently made a comeback in the last episode of Dynamite and is set to face off against Jamie Hayter in this upcoming episode.