AEW Dark Episode 170- 11/15/2022 (Women's Wrestling)

 By Mark Rodriguez

We got three matches tonight as we see Skye Blue and Kiera Hogan in action as well as more of Athena embracing her newfound savagery.

Match 1- Skye blue vs Paris Van Dale

Skye and Paris lock up and try to gain control of the arm of the other. After some back and forth, Paris finally hits Skye in the face. Paris takes this chance to try to grab her for a slam but Skye gets behind her for a waist lock. Paris reverses this into her own waist lock but Skye goes to the ropes and bounces backwards off them to try to pin her opponent down. Paris is able to kick out. Skye tries to kick her in the face but Paris catches her leg and makes her drop to one knee. Regardless, Skye spin her leg around and hits her in the face the second time.

Skye runs towards Paris, but her taller opponent grabs her and slams her face into the middle turnbuckle. Paris runs in and knees Skye on the back of the head, making her drop to the mat. Paris goes for the pin, but they are too close to the ropes and Skye manages to her foot on them. Paris hits Skye with hammer punches but her opponent manages to get to her feet and start throwing punches of her own. Paris grabs her by the hair and whips back back to the mat.

Paris whips Skye towards the ring post. Skye manages to get out of the way as Paris runs towards her, leaving her to hit the ring post. Skye goes for a quick roll up pin with a bridge, but Paris kicks out. Skye runs towards Paris and gets her with a jawbreaker onto her knee and then gets her up against the ropes where she hits her with a high knee strike. Skye then bounces off the ropes and knocks Paris across the ring with a flying dropkick to the face. 

Skye grabs Paris for a backslide pin, but she couldn't keep her down. As Paris gets back up, Skye drops her with a thrust kick to the face. Skye grabs her for the Flatliner and gets the pin to win the match.

Match 2- Kennedi Copeland vs Kiera Hogan 

Kiera starts the match by delivering a kick to the midsection to Kennedi. As she runs towards her, Kennedi stops her by hitting her in the throat. As Kiera is holding onto her throat, Kennedi knees her in the stomach and them slams her down with a standing bulldog. As Kennedi tries to continue the attack, Kiera kicks her in the knee and then in the face. With Kennedi on her knees, Kiera steps on her back and hits her with a leg drop. She goes for the pin but Kennedi kicks out.

Kiera angrily grabs Kennedi for the Ground and Pound until the ref breaks it up. Kiera sends Kennedi up against the ring post and gives her a kick to the ribs. She then climbs on the ropes and plants her boot up against Kennedi's throat. Kiera then gets her in a Snapmare and kicks her across the back. She then goes for the pin but Kennedi kicks out. Kiera takes this chance to get in a rear chin lock.

Kennedi gets to her feet and starts elbowing Kiera in the midsection to get her to let go. Kiera knocks her down with a hammer punch to the shoulder blades. Kiera starts shoving Kennedi around and taunting her. Kennedi has enough and socks her in the face. She then grabs her arm and drops backwards, slamming her knees into it. As Kiera tends to her arm, Kennedi runs towards her but ends up eating a back elbow to the face. 

Kennedi tried to run towards her again but Kiera trips her into falling face-first into the middle turnbuckle. Kiera runs at her and hits her with a sliding kick to the jaw. Kiera hits Kennedi with a roundhouse kick to the jaw and lays her out. She goes for the pin and wins the match.

Match 3- LMK vs Athena

The match opens as Athena picks up Little Mean Kathleen and slams her down. Athena starts taunting her, and as LMK takes the bait, she gets knocked by a big back elbow. LMK runs towards Athena and even though it looks like the Fallen Goddess has caught her, LMK sends her flying across the ring with a Hurricarana. LMK grabs her arm and goes for an off-the-rope armdrag. Still holding onto her arm, LMK starts to chomp on it. 

Athena grabs Kathleen and whips her towards the ropes, following after her with a big back elbow strike. Athena then whips her to the other side of the ring and follows with a shoulder tackle. She then flips LMK over her shoulder and lets her drop to the mat behind her. Athena bounces off the ropes and lands onto LMK with a senton and goes for the pin. LMK kicks out. Athena grabs LMK's arm and gets her in abdominal stretch while jamming her elbow into her ribs.

Kathleen tries to fight her way out of it, but Athena grabs her in the backstabber. As LMK tries to get herself together, Athena runs towards her. LMK gets out of the way and Athena crashes into the middle turnbuckle. Athena heads towards LMK and her smaller opponent hits her with a headbutt to the midsection and a kick to the face. LMK knocks Athena down with a lariat. With Athena up against the ropes, LMK runs towards her. She climbs onto the ropes, hitting her with the Bicycle Kick all over Athena's face and finishes with a Stomp. 

LMK poses for the crows and tries to whip Athena towards the other side of the ring. Athena whips her towards the ropes instead and runs at her. LMK keeps her back with a boot to the face. LMK climbs to the ropes and yells out Athena's name as she jumps at her. Athena turns around and catches her. She then spikes her into the mat. Athena climbs to the ropes, waiting to do the O-Face but LMK isn't getting up.

Athena gets tired of waiting and climbs back down, kicking LMK across the ribs. Athena starts clobbering her and then picks her up to knock her back down with a lariat. Athena pins her and gets the win. The ref makes sure LMK is alright and Athena just leaves, angry she couldn't use her Finisher on her and end the match on her terms. 

After the following match there's a very short segment where one of the AEW interviewers, Lexy Nair was trying to get a word from Athena. Athena pretty much barges onto the scene, gets in her face and chases her off. Athena is just pissed.

My Thoughts- 

Pretty decent set of matches here. It's always fun to see Skye Blue in action and Paris got to get more offense in rather than get demolished by Tay the night before. Kiera and Kennedi has a decent match, both of them getting some cool moves in. I seriously thought when Kiera did the legdrop near the beginning of the match that was it, but luckily we got a little more action. Kennedi got some sweet moves in, like that standing bulldog and that armbreaker.

The Athena match was pretty good, lots of interesting moves and LMK is quite the character. She got a couple of cool moves in there and gave Athena some trouble. I was a bit confused near the end where she was down and not getting back up to go along with Athena's finisher. It's not too common we get to see someone just get smacked around and then pinned without some sort of epic finish or submission move, but I guess after Athena caught her and spiked her, LMK was just done. 

Athena continues to get vicious, fight with the ref and even chase interviewers away. I assume we'll see more of the Fallen Goddess embrace her dark side on Dark and Dark Elevation until she's ready to unleash her new attitude on Dynamite and Rampage.

This was the last Dark before Full Gear this upcoming weekend. Jamie Hayter will challenge Toni Storm for the AEW Interim Women's Title. Jade will get to face off against Nyla Rose in hopes of getting back her stolen TBS Women's Title. Finally, we get to see Saraya's big comeback match against Dr. Britt Baker DMD.

Last Minute Edit and update-

So much for The Bunny being on TV. Looks like she fell ill so she was replaced last minute by Anna Jay. I'm sure Toni will retain anyway, but let's see how well Anna Jay does against her.