AEW Dark Episode 166- 11/1/2022 (Women's Matches)

 By Mark Rodriguez

We got some interesting matches tonight as Leva Bates makes her long awaited 'does she even still work here anymore' return to the ring. Plus we got Nyla Rose, the self-proclaimed TBS Women's Champ and the Interim AEW Women's Champ Toni Storm in action.

Match 1- Leva Bates vs Nyla Rose w/ Vickie Guerrero & "The Problem" Marina Shafir 

Nyla Rose steps to the ring and declares an open challenge for her stolen title. Leva Bates steps up to the task. Leva gets ready to grapple but Nyla runs in with a knee to the stomach which knocks her down. Leva ducks under two attempted swings from Nyla and actually gets to elbow her in the face. Nyla grabs her and shoves Leva over to the ringpost, but the Librarian gets out of the way before Nyla can clobber her. Leva starts raining the hits until the ref breaks it up.

Leva hears Vickie yell out her high pitched 'EXCUSE MEEEE!!' and tells her to shush. Vickie yells again and Leva shushes her again. Vickie yells out one more time which finally makes Leva yell out 'SHUT THE HELL UP'. Leva is distracted by this and gets knocked down by Nyla's Spear the moment she turns around.

Nyla picks up Leva and slams her with a Beast Bomb. She goes for the pin and wins the match. Marina and Vickie enter the ring with Nyla pretending she won a hard fought battle with fake emotional crying and the whole bit. Vickie holds up a sign that says 57-0 making fun of Jade, the real TBS champ's win streak

Match 2- AEW Interim Women's Champion Toni Storm vs Diamanté 

Both women start to grapple with Diamante getting Toni into a rear waist lock. Toni grabs her into a side headlock takedown. Diamante gets to her feet and takes control of Toni's wrist. Toni reverses it and takes hold of Diamante's wrist. Diamante rolls across the mat and flips to her feet, elbowing Toni in the face to get her to let go. Diamante whips Toni towards the ropes and the Interim Champ knocks her down with a high knee strike.

With Diamante up against the ropes, Toni runs at her. She grabs her and drops backwards, vaulting Diamante over her towards the mat. Toni poses for the crowd and runs towards Diamante, using the same vault throw on her again. Toni then runs into Diamante with a body splash up against the turnbuckle. Toni grabs and runs with Diamante, dropping her face first in a Bulldog slam. She goes for the pin but Diamante kicks out. 

Toni gets Diamante back to her feet and hits her with a chop. She whips her towards the ringpost and runs at her but Diamante grabs her and gets her over to the ring apron. Diamante grabs Toni and bounces her throat off the ropes. With Toni down on the apron, Diamante runs into her with a sliding dropkick and kicks her to the floor. 

Diamante steps out after Toni and slams her back up against the ring apron. She then shoves Toni back into the ring. Diamante slams Toni onto her back and goes for the Ground and Pound. With Toni up against the ropes, Diamante starts kicking at her and drives her knee into her face. Diamante grabs Toni in a Snapmare and kicks her across the spine. Diamante does an elbow drop onto Toni's back when she tries to get back up. The crowd boos as Diamante brings the pain to the Interim Champ. Diamante goes for another elbow drop and then the pin. Toni kicks out, but then her opponent gets her in a chin lock.

Toni tries to power out of this hold by elbowing Diamante off her, but her opponent hammers her down with punches. Diamante hits Toni with her knees twice in a row and gets her back into the chin lock. She lets Toni go to break the ref's count and then slams her face into the mat. Both women get to their feet and start trading chops and elbow strikes. Diamante kicks her in the midsection and whips her towards the ropes. As both women run at each other, Toni leaps high and lands onto Diamante, slamming her down for a Ground and Pound. 

Toni gets pumped up and runs Diamante over with a clothesline and then knocks her down again with a Shotgun Dropkick. Toni grabs her for a Fisherman Suplex, but Diamante kicks out. Toni tries to grab her but her opponent slips from her grasp. Diamante goes for The Cazadora and slams her with a Stunner. She goes for the pin but the Interim Champ kicks out. 

Diamante grabs Toni for two consecutive German Suplexes. She tries to go for a third but Toni gets behind her and grabs her for her own German Suplex. Toni slams her for a second one, and goes for a third, despite Diamante's best attempts to avoid it. With Diamante up against the ropes, she manages to get out the way before Toni can hit her with the Running Hip Attack. Toni backs up and does it anyway, knocking her opponent off the ring apron and onto the floor. Toni grabs onto Diamante and slams her with a DDT off the ring apron.

With Diamante up against the ropes, Toni slams into her face with the Running Hip Attack. She then grabs her in the Texas Cloverleaf. Diamante taps out and Toni Storm wins the match. 

Match 3- "The Problem" Marina Shafir w/ Vickie Guerrero & Nyla Rose vs Kennedi Copeland

As both women get ready to lock up, Marina drops Kennedi with a thrust kick to the face. Marina crouches down and grabs Kennedi by the face. Kennedi tries to fight back but Marina gets her in a guillotine submission hold. Kennedi taps out and Marina Shafir wins the match.

My Thoughts-

Wow.... I guess we only got one real match tonight and two squashes. What was the point of the Marina 5-second squash match? I know she has a match against Jade, but it's not like she's going to do the same thing to her. As her last match leading into Dynamite, Marina should have spent some time 'playing with her food' and showing off the variety of holds she might use on Jade to hype her up a bit. 

Also an interesting question came to mind. Say Marina beats Jade this Wednesday Night. That would make her the real TBS Women's Champ. Nyla Rose seems a little too happy running around with the stolen title, I don't think she'll be too eager to hand it over. She always cheers on Marina, but her smile might turn into a frown when she realizes she'll have to give her the title if she does indeed defeat Jade.

The match between Leva and Nyla was another squash but at least we got the funny exchange between The Librarian and the ever-so-noisy Vickie Guerrero. Vickie is so annoying she got The Librarian to raise her voice.

The real match tonight was Diamante VS Toni Storm. Both women gave each a decent challenge. I've probably said this countless times before by now, but I wish Diamante could also show up on TV. Nyla was also stuck on Dark for the longest time until she ran off with the TBS title. Now she has a reason to keep appearing on Dynamite and Rampage, at least until Jade finally gets her title back. Maybe have Diamante start beef with Saraya or someone like that to give her a reason to pursue the feud on TV.

Also glad to see Toni win the match with the Texas Cloverleaf. It's a cooler looking way to end the match than with the Storm Zero which is pretty much just a basic piledriver.

As mentioned earlier, AEW Dynamite will have Marina Shafir challenge Jade Cargill for the TBS Women's Title. This might be a chance to grab the belt from Nyla if she is in the area.

Also Renee will have a sit down with Saraya and Britt Baker. We'll see what happens there since at this time we still don't know if Saraya has been cleared for actual in-ring action yet. Maybe a match for the upcoming AEW Full Gear?