By Mark Rodriguez
On Dark Elevation on the previous night, Marina Shafir showed up to challenge Athena for the Ring of Honor Women's Title. The big surprise was that this match would take place now, which is the following night. We'll also see Emi Sakura, Diamante and hey, Teal Piper is in this one too!
Match 1- Emi Sakura & Diamante vs Ruby Soho & Willow Nightingale
The match open with Emi and Diamante attacking Willow and Ruby while they were still posing for the crowd. Diamante slips out of the ring and grabs onto Willow and Ruby's legs from the apron. Emi runs at them with a flying crossbody, knocking them both off the ring apron. Emi and Diamante pose for some tea. Diamante runs under Emi for a sliding dropkick off the apron but Ruby is ready for her and stops her with a punch.
Ruby grabs Diamante and slams her into the barricade. Willow starts attacking Emi and follows her outside of the ring. Ruby continues to hit Diamante and rolls her into the ring. With Ruby and Diamante in the ring, the bell rings and the match finally starts properly. Diamante starts throwing some shots at Ruby, but when she kicks her, Ruby catches her leg and knees her in the face. Diamante is up against the ropes and Ruby dashes at her. Diamante gets out of the way and knees Ruby in the face while she's hanging off the ropes. Ruby falls out of the ring and Diamante follows.
Emi has Willow up against the ring post and is hitting her with chops. As Emi reels back for a big one, Willow moves out of the way, leaving Emi to hit the steel post instead. Willow kicks Emi in the midsection and then slams her in a Death Valley Driver onto the unforgiving floor. Diamante runs into Willow and knocks her down with a dropkick. Diamante taunts Willow and goes over to grab Ruby's leg and make her fall face-first into the ring apron. Ruby falls out of the ring and Diamante follows her.
Diamante grabs Ruby and plants her face into a chair. Diamante walks back and runs towards Ruby but gets knocked into the barricade by Willow tackling her with The Pounce. Willow grabs Diamante and gets her back into the ring, where Ruby can now grab her. Ruby slams her with Destination Unknown and goes for the pin, winning the match. Ruby and Willow are set to face Tay and Anna Jay on Rampage in a Street Fight.
Match- Teal Piper & Kel vs Anna Jay & Tay Melo
The match opens with Tay going up against Kel, with Kel quickly grabbing Tay for a roll up pin. Tay kicks out and gets in her face, telling her to go tag Teal in. As Kel walks over to do that, Tay suddenly kicks in her midsection and judo flips her to the mat. Tay whips Kel over towards the JAS corner of the ring. Tay tags Anna Jay in and they both suplex Kel. Anna Jay starts choking Kel and extended her arm out, taunting the fact that she's too far to tag in Teal. Kel had enough to hits in the face. Kel tries to go for a tag but Anna Jay grabs her and hair-whips to the mat.
Anna Jay taunts the crowd on wanting Teal to enter the match. She then socks Teal off the apron. Anna Jay whips Kel back over to her corner and then runs over to hit her with a back kick. Tay is tagged in who runs over to Kel and pops her with a high knee strike. Anna Jay gets tagged back in and Tay whips her towards Kel, though she manages to get out of the way in time.
Kel tries to tag in Teal but Tay grabs onto her leg. Kel manages to kick her away and does a dive to tag in Teal. Teal runs in and ducks under Tay and keeps on running to knock Anna Jay over with a lariat. She then knocks down both Tay and Anna Jay with several lariats in a row. Teal pokes Anna Jay in the eyes but Tay comes in to knock her down with a punt kick.
Kel gets tagged back in but Tay kicks her in the midsection and plants her with the DDTay. Anna Jay then grabs her in the Queen Slayer and makes her tap. Tay Melo and Anna Jay win the match and call out Ruby and Willow for their upcoming Street Fight on AEW Rampage.
Match 3- Marina Shafir vs Athena RoH Women's Champ
Athena reaches out for a handshake and pulls it back but Marina is in no mood for jokes. Marina tries to grapple her but Athena moves around too much to be held down. Marina gets her in an ankle lock but Athena quickly goes for the rope break. Athena literally hugs the ropes and tells the ref to have Marina back off.
Athena gets back in the ring, being a lot more wary of Marina now. She quickly rolls out of the ring and calls for a time out as she tries to figure out what to do about The Problem. Athena climbs back into the ring and grapples with Marina, managing to hit her in the face. Vickie yells at Athena and when she turns around, she's surprised to see Marina back on her feet and glaring at her. This time Marina is the one to punch Athena down to the mat. Marina grabs her and hits her several time with her hips and then judo flips her to the mat.
Athena tries to crawl away and Marina grabs her leg. Marina pulls Athena back as The Fallen Goddess yanks the apron along with her. Athena kicks Maria off her and gets out of the ring. Marina goes after her and grabs her by the hair and Athena pulls her legs out to make her fall onto the apron.
Athena grabs Marina's legs and spins her head-first against the steel ring post. Athena then runs in and knees her in the face as she's still partially hanging off the ring apron. Athena hits her while she's still upside down and then flings her onto the floor. Athena gets tired of Vickie's squawking and gets up in her face. As she turns, Marina has already gotten back into the ring.
Marina picks up Athena, but the Fallen Goddess starts wailing on her, making her set her down and crumble to the mat. Athena grabs Marina with the Fish Hook and then slams her face into the mat. Athena gets her in a hold that pulls back on Marina's jaw until Marina is able to get Athena into a pin. Athena gets her into her own pin and Marina gets her in a scissor leglock. Athena tries to pin and Marina breaks away.
Marina grabs Athena back into the Cross Armbreaker as Athena struggles to prevent her form fully locking it in. Athena manages to pick her up and power bomb her to the mat. Both women struggle to get back to their feet. Athena runs towards Marina, who kicks her legs out from under her. Athena throws some punches which Marina dodges, firing back with her own barrage of punches and kicks, all of them connecting. Marina goes for a big kick that Athena manages to duck. Athena hits her with a strong kick to the jaw, rocking Marina back.
Marina gets back up and kicks Athena in the thighs, followed by a thrust kick that sends her falling through the ropes. Marina gets in her stance, waiting for Athena to get back into the ring. Athena goes for her title and starts walking off. Marina runs after her and judo flips her to the floor. Marina flips her over again and then runs her into the ring apron. She then rolls her back into the ring.
As Marina gets back in, Athena tries to kick her but she is caught and slammed into the mat. Marina goes for the pin but Athena kicks out. Marina tries to get Athena in a sleeper hold, but she gets back to her feet. Marina climbs onto her back, still not letting go and Athena moves backwards, hitting her up against the top turnbuckle. With Marina still hanging on, Athena throws herself to the mat, landing on Marina.
The RoH Women's Champ pats herself on the back after outsmarting her opponent, but Marina gets her in a sleeper hold again. Athena gets back up but Marina jumps onto her back. Athena goes for the ropes as Marina is still hanging onto her. The Fallen Goddess starts showing signs of fading, despite her current position. She succumbs to the sleeper hold, falling backwards and taking Marina along for the ride. Both women are down.
The ref counts up to 7 before Athena finally gets up and grabs Marina. She slaps her around and starts talking trash to her. Marina gets up and blocks Athena's punch and hits her with several elbow shots. Marina hits her with knees to the midsection until Athena stomps on her foot, taking advantage that she fights barefoot. Marina tries to get her foot off of hers and Athena socks her in the jaw. Athena goes for the Ground and Pound, but Marina manages to roll her over and start throwing shots of her own. Athena kicks her off.
Marina approaches Athena while she's down, but the champ grabs her and flips her over the ropes, making her stumble out of the ring. Athena runs out of the ring and knocks Marina down with a Tope Suicida. She then throws her into the steel steps. Athena runs at her and hits her with double knees up against the steps. Athena rolls her into the mat and gets her in the Crossface.
My Thoughts-
Cool set of matches and something different this time around. The first match was kind all over the place. It seemed most of it took place outside of the ring and the camera man had a tough time deciding where to keep the camera on. Ruby took most of the hits this time around and we barely got to see any of Emi's antics, since she was going after Willow and the action stayed focused mostly on Diamante and Ruby.
Everyone popped to see Teal Piper step out to her father's classic theme. I feel kinda bad for Kel, pretty much stuck playing second fiddle as most of the match centered on when Teal was going to enter the ring. Teal only got a few seconds in the match, doing a few lariats and the eye poke, but that was pretty much for her. Hopefully we see more of her.
Teal Piper made her AEW debut back in 2019 being part of the Casino Battle Royale for All Out. It was big news at the time because AEW was still pretty new and it was a shocker that Roddy Piper's daughter would make her wrestling debut there instead of WWE. Hopefully we see a lot of her in the future.
The main event was pretty good. Athena came in with her usual cocky attitude but soon saw that Marina was no one to mess with. To be fair, it was a great physical match and Marina really pushed Athena to her absolute limit. It's not too often we see a heel vs heel match, with Athena playing the more cowardly heel while Marina was the 'I'm gonna bust you up!' heel. That sleep hold spot while being on the top turnbuckle was crazy. I asked myself why Nyla didn't appear somewhere to jump in, but I realized having Marina cheat would have made the crowd sympathize with Athena, and she's having too much fun as a hell to switch now.
What has me curious if how this Vickie story will progress. Too bad the cameras went off, so to speak, after the match ended. I would have loved to have seen how Vickie would have reacted to Marina losing a title shot when it was so close. For now it seems the story involving Vickie, Nyla and Marina will mostly be contained to Dark and Dark Elevation, but it is a cool thing to see as it progresses. We already saw the feud between Nyla and Jade make it to Dynamite, Rampage and even AEW Full Gear. We'll see if they can do it again.
As both teams mentioned, Tay Melo and Anna Jay have a Street Fight set for Rampage against Ruby Soho and Willow Nightingale. It was pretty crazy involving steel chairs, barbed wire and thumb tacks. In the end Ruby and Willow won as Ruby planted Tay onto thumbtacks using the Destination Unknown to end the match.
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